A collaborative effort of the State Blood Transfusion Committee (SBTC) of the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) and the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), the blood bank will have large blood storage and componentsplitting equipment.
“The blood bank is for the city. It is almost ready and we will inaugurate it soon. It will have some permanent staff, while the rest will be on contract.
There are three special things here, one is HIV-antigen test which allow immediate diagnosis, the second is that there will be a mobile airconditioned van to attend voluntary donation camps and lastly, there will be a blood component splitting facility so that plasma, platelets and RBC can be given,” said Dr Prakash Doke, director, DHS.
“It will be the largest blood bank in Maharashtra, operational for 24 hours and making blood of various groups available at all times. With the latest equipment, there are component splitting facilities because of which blood from one person can be given to five to ten persons,” said Dr Pravin Shingare, former dean of the JJ Group of Hospitals and additional director of the DMER.
“It is going to have fractionation centre and huge storing capacity. I think it will be an asset to have in the name of JJ hospital,” said Dr B M Sabnis, dean, JJ Group of Hospitals.
According to public health officials, as the project kicks off, the JJ hospital blood bank will be integrated into the new centre. Voluntary blood donors can walk into the centre and make donation, and it will be a nodal nodal point for voluntary organisations collectign blood.
“There is no issue about the quantity. The idea is to generate supply and ensure recurrence. Through this centre, blood can be sent to the other cities as required or even out of the state, like for victims of the Jaipur blasts,” said Dr Shingare.
According to SBTC, the current voluntary blood donation is about 70 per cent to 80 per cent, which means that about 30 per cent of patients still have to get blood or give replacement.
Before the monsoons, the SBTC along with several other organisations is looking to fill the blood banks for the need created during the season.
Meanwhile, the SBTC is also setting up a transfusion centre on a sprawling 10,000-square feet plot at Kharghar, a centre that will offer training for medical, paramedical and other personnel working in blood banks.
“Since we started the blood platelet project last year, we have been in touch with the blood bank. This centre is expected to be a state-of-theart one with a component separation unit that will ensure that there is sufficient blood. Our group will organise several blood donation drives so that the platelet scarcity that we face during the monsoons is not felt and all the blood donation activities will be coordinated from this place,” said Dr Ravikant Sharma of Doctors for You, a voluntary group of medical professionals with 800 members.