Set up devices to save donated blood: TN to Centre

The Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) is the only hospital in Chennai that has a blood bank with apheresis device. The Institute of Child Health (ICH), Chennai, has requested for an apheresis device so that they can avoid referring patients to RGGGH for blood component separation. “The number of patients who need the facility is greater than what the blood bank can provide currently, especially during an outbreak,” said an official.

However, pointing out that the Centre would provide only one apheresis device to each district, officials sources from the State Health Department said Chennai already has the equipment at RGGGH.

On an average, the blood bank at RGGGH issues around one lakh blood components a year. The apheresis facility is mostly required for people with low immunity and low platelet count.

“The need for an apheresis device had increased during the dengue outbreak in 2017,” said the official. Explaining this, doctors said when a person is infected by dengue virus, platelet count would decrease considerably. It usually requires at least four to five persons to donate enough blood to increase the platelet count of the patient to the desired level.

During 2017 outbreak, various blood donation camps were conducted to provide platelets for the patients. However, said Dr G R Ravindranath, general secretary of Doctors Association for Social Equality, “As only the platelets were required for blood transfusion, the remaining blood was unused and disposed of. The apheresis devices can store blood components like plasma and platelets for a longer time than usual blood banks. Therefore, every government hospital should have these devices.”

“The National Policy for Blood Transfusion encourages blood component transfusion over blood transfusion. It also says that 80 per cent of all transfusions should be based on blood component transfusion. However, Tamil Nadu does only 20 per cent of blood component transfusion and rest 80 per cent blood transfusion. In this process, a lot of blood goes waste if there is a need of only components,” Dr Ravindranath added.

“We are awaiting approval from the Centre on the proposal. The talks are on for the actual allotment,” said Dr K Kolandaisamy, Director, Public Health. He added that the attempt was to equip those government hospitals that receive more patients with the device so as to be able to supply enough blood components, especially in case of an outbreak.

In 2016, a petition was filed before Madurai bench of the Madras High Court seeking direction to operate a blood transfusion machine that was kept idle in Dindigul Government Hospital.

“Availability of blood components shall be ensured through the network of regional centres, satellite centres and other blood centres by creating adequate number of blood component separation units. Appropriate steps shall be taken to increase the availability of plasma fractions as per the need of the country through expanding the capacity of existing centre and establishing new centres in the country.”