New blood bank has plugged city demand-supply gap, says state……..Jinal Shah
Mumbai Within four months of its inauguration, the blood-component separator at the states biggest blood bank in JJ Hospital, Byculla, has started contributing enough blood components, mainly platelets, to meet the demand in Mumbai, says the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC).
The metropolitan blood bank at JJ Hospital, established as a centralised location for collecting and storing blood, is equipped with a hi-tech component-splitting facility apart from other high-end equipment.
It is the first government blood bank to provide blood components on a large scale. The blood center has attained 100 per cent voluntary and 100 per cent component preparation from outdoor blood donation drives without any replacement from donors, said Dr Sanjay Jadhav, assistant director of SBTC.
During the 2005 deluge and subsequent years, platelets had to be brought from other regions. In the successive years, the city just about managed to meet its need for blood from three civic run blood banks at King Edward Memorial Hospital (collects 30,000 units of blood annually), Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General hospital (14,000 units) and B Y L Nair hospital (12,000 units) and a few private blood banks. But blood components collected from these blood banks was hardly 30 per cent of the whole blood.
Blood banks at KEM and Sion supply 30 to 40 units of platelets a day; the metropolitan blood bank at JJ alone contributed 100 to 200 units per day, said Dr Jadhav.
The blood components available at JJ Hospital has plugged the demand-supply gap in Mumbai, especially in the case of platelets. The components are available at cheaper rates and are of good quality. This has helped a lot during the rain where platelets are required on a day-to-day-basis, said Dr Jadhav.
The state has 116 blood banks that have component separation facility and has made a provision for 22 more centers to meet the rising needs of patients in the state.