In times when even blood is looked at as commercial merchandise, the Shanghumughom subdivision of the Thiruvananthapuram City police has come forward to help accident victims and cancer patients by ensuring its free and safe supply.
The move is in the form of a Free Blood Donors’ Forum, which will have a blood donors’ databank. The police are intervening to help those in need by providing transport for the donors.
The forum, a brainchild of Jawahar Janardh, Assistant Commissioner (Shanghumugham), is in the process of creating the databank, with phone numbers, addresses, blood groups, and other details of all willing and potential donors in the seven police stations under the subdivision.
Such a move was necessary as there were reports of a mafia making rounds in hospitals, fleecing people who were in desperate need of blood. They sold blood of questionable quality, Mr. Janardh said.
The forum was a joint venture with the Indian Medical Association (IMA)’s Thiruvananthapuram chapter and part of the Janamaithri Suraksha project, he said.
“There is a shortage of blood in hospitals here. We aim to help people in extreme emergency cases, mostly accident victims and cancer patients. People from all walks of life are joining us, with awareness sessions held during Janamaithri meetings with residents’ associations. Blood grouping camps have been organised and consent forms distributed,” he said. Donors, perhaps for the first time in the State, would be given a certificate authenticated by the IMA and the Janamaithri Police, he added. Sheen Tharayil, Circle Inspector (Medical College), said the subdivision had the most number of hospitals in the city under its limits, including the medical college, the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, the Regional Cancer Centre, the SAT Hospital, and at least seven major private hospitals. All these had a large influx of patients from outside the State, with patients having no connections at all here running around for a unit of blood. These people could now call up the police for help, Mr. Tharayil said.
Engineering students from at least three colleges, medical college students, all policemen in seven police stations, and their relatives, airport employees, residents’ association members, and taxi drivers would form the donor population, he said. City Police Commissioner H. Venkatesh launched the programme on Sunday. The forum had already helped nine patients, Mr. Janardh said.
