Govt hospitals facing blood shortage

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 27

Attendants looking after patients admitted at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) or other associated hospitals in Jammu are facing many hardships in arranging blood in these hospitals.

Sources claimed that blood banks at the GMCH, Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital, Shalamar Road, and Government Gandhi Nagar Hospital are witnessing a decline in voluntary blood donors in the recent past due to various reasons.

They added that one of the reasons was lack of initiatives on part of the hospital authorities to launch awareness campaigns at any level for informing people to donate blood. Secondly, the donors who are donating blood in the banks are getting meagre refreshment in return, sources said.

They further said there were many NGOs which were conducting blood donation camps at regular junctures and providing refreshments too. The voluntary donors prefer donating blood to the NGOs instead of government hospitals.

“My wife has been admitted in the emergency ward at the GMCH since last week and in between that period I had to arrange blood for her twice. I first approached the blood bank at the GMCH where I was informed that AB+ blood was unavailable.

Thereafter, I filled a form given by the GMCH blood bank and after taking samples, I went to Government Hospital, Gandhi Nagar, to get a bottle of blood. Such hardships are being faced by many people,” said Dharmesh, a resident of Sangwal village.

“I had to repeat the same procedure for the second time too. I have no conveyance and public transport consumes a lot of time. It is imperative for the state government to improve the prevailing system and ensure adequate availability of blood for all patients in the hospitals where they are admitted,” he added.

Dr Vijay Sawhney, associate professor and head of the GMCH blood bank, Jammu, told The Tribune: “Blood banks in the hospitals are getting a decent number of donors of different blood groups.” When asked about the difficulties being faced by the people in arranging blood, Dr Sawhney said: “It is difficult to arrange blood for everyone in the hospital but we are trying our level best to provide the same to the needy patients most of the times. In fact, we are organising many camps to create awareness for voluntary blood donation.”

In reply to another question regarding poor refreshment being given to voluntary blood donors, he said: “Yes, the refreshment is not enough but we are authorised to provide this only.”