Commercial blood donor racket
busted in Govandi
Even If One Contaminated Bottle Enters The System There Is Cause
For Worry
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: It is an alarming diagnosis: contaminated blood could be
circulating in the city’s healthcare system through a
little-known blood bank located on Govandi Station Road.
This came to light when Ambaji Blood Bank & Blood Components
was raided by a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) team led by
commissioner A Ramakrishnan himself on Wednesday night.
“It’s a C-grade blood bank and we have already cancelled its
licence,’’ FDA commissioner A Ramakrishnan told TOI.
The FDA and Trombay police teams that conducted the raid believe
that people — most of them repeat donors—were being offered
Rs 150 to donate more than twice the prescribed volume of blood
and, worse, none of the mandatory screening tests were being
conducted.
“These men were not even asked the basic screening questions
of whether they have fever or taken medication in the past 24
hours,’’ said Parmesh Kadam of the Jan Jagriti Samajik
Sanstha, the voluntary organisation that had alerted the FDA
about the dubious blood bank.
Screening tests to establish anaemia and the dreaded
blood-related contaminants — viruses like HIV and Hepatitis C
— too were not being done, he alleged. “The total screening
operation can cost Rs 800 per person, and we are sure this bank
didn’t take such precautions,’’ he added. Corroborating
his point, sub-inspector Pradeep Wani of the Trombay police
said, “We have arrested eight professional donor and two
technicians of the blood bank on the charge of releasing blood
without proper checks.’’ The police said they would conduct
blood tests to establish if the donors had any infectious
diseases.
The Raid
The operation began at 8 pm and ended at 4 am, with the FDA
sealing the premises. A fortnight ago, the Jan Jagruti Samajik
Sanstha noticed a motorbike rider regularly picking up certain
individuals from Kamraj Nagar, Ramanbhai Colony, Ghatkopar East.
“We asked around and found out that he paid Rs 150 to people
who donated blood to Ambaji Blood Bank,’’ said Kadam.
The NGO then kept a watch on the blood bank and noticed that a
technician took charge after 5 pm and a steady stream of people
made a beeline for the bank. “Most of these people seemed poor
and in illhealth,’’ he said.
The NGO helped a donor who was on the verge of fainting after
walking out of the blood bank and got out the whole story.
“The government prescribes that blood should be donated only
once in three months, but here were people who had donated twice
a week if not more,’’ said Vilas Rupwate from the NGO. “We
found one person who claimed he had donated blood six times in
as many days.’’ Most of those arrested had blue-black marks
on their forearm that indicated repeated jabs, they said. “The
blood bank obviously had a list of regulars who would be picked
or invited on certain days,’’ they added.
“Most of these guys were underweight even though the National
Blood Policy clearly states that donors should be over 48
kg.’’
The owners of the blood bank, Dr Sharad and wife Bhavna Khara,
are out of the country, said the police. Their second blood
bank, Ambica, in Ghatkopar W too has been sealed by the FDA.
Blood Banks In Mumbai
The city has around 62 blood banks—22 belonging to public
healthcare institutions, 12 to private trusts and trust-run
hospitals and the remaining are private stand-alone operators.
While the first two categories have been authorised to organise
voluntary blood donation camps, the standalone camp cannot.
“It is a wonder that people set up such blood banks at all.
The investment for a blood bank is huge, running into tens of
lakhs, and a stand-alone bank can, at best, get 2,000 donors a
year. Even if they charge users a whopping Rs 3,000 per bottle
of blood, it just doesn’t make economic sense,’’ says a
public health expert.
Vinay Shetty, who helps organise blood donation drives for
recognised and government blood banks, says it is a disaster
even if one bottle of contaminated blood makes it to the
healthcare system.
It is to avoid such disasters that the State Blood Transfusion
Council and the FDA had issued a notice to these stand-alone
banks last year to either align themselves with reputed
hospitals or shut shop. “We have given these people about a
year to do so, and we will soon start cracking the whip,’’
said a government official who doesn’t want to be identified.
FDA commissioner Ramakrishnan promises more corrective action in
the next 15 days. But the main problem, he said, is the fact
that licences for blood banks are given out by the central
government. “Why should the Centre then not monitor such
units?’’ he asked.
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