Make blood transfusion component of disaster planning: Ramadoss

New Delhi, Dec 12 (UNI) Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss today admitted that India was deficient of 50 per cent of blood as per the WHO norms and called for making management of Blood Transfusion services a key component of the hospital disaster planning.

Inaugurating the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) State Secretaries Meeting on 'Promotion of Voluntary Blood Donation through Indian Red Cross' here, Dr Ramadoss said the organisation of blood transfusion services should be an integral part of any national health policy.

Pointing out that the infrastructure of blood banking services were highly decentralised and did not have adequate trained people, equipment/ supplies and financial resources to provide the quality of services required from a blood bank, the IRCS Chairman said there should be emphasis on providing blood/blood components to the needy patients admitted in Government and private hospitals.

Such care required committed volunteers, doctors, paramedical personnel and nurses, which in turn required recurrent inflow of funds so that the Society could run blood transfusion service effectively, he pointed out, adding, ''A serious commitment is required for an effective blood transfusion programme in terms of financial and human resources.'' Stating that the safe transfusion requires not only the application of science and technology to blood processing and testing, but also social mobilisation to promote voluntary blood donation by sufficient numbers of people, who have no infectious diseases that can be transmitted to the recipients of their blood.

The health minister said to reduce the gap between demand and availability of Safe Blood, there should be a planned programme to create awareness amongst public so as to ensure a regular supply of good quality blood without any seasonal shortages. The educational programme be so designed that the community understands the advantage of regular blood donation.

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