It’s vacation time and the hostels have emptied out. But there is not much celebration at blood banks whose primary donors are students. These institutions are approaching associations and private firms, including those in the manufacturing and IT fields for holding blood donation camps.
“This is something that happens every year, globally,” said K. Selvarajan, formerly professor of Transfusion Medicine at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
At such times, regular blood donors such traders’ associations and IT companies are the best bet.
“TCS employees regularly donated nearly 4,000 to 5,000 units of blood during summer for three years for GH,” he added.
It would be excellent if blood donation camps are planned in such a way that they are spreads across the summer months, said N. Rajakumar, professor and head, Department of Transfusion Medicine, Government Stanley Medical College Hospital.
“We are trying to prepare a calendar of camps to tackle the summer shortage. We have asked the organisers to hold camps during summer. For instance, we asked the merchants association in Washermenpet to hold their camp in May. Accordingly, it was held last week and we received 75 units of blood. This has given us adequate stock for 10 to 15 days,” he added. He said that steps were also on to collect information from the nine government blood banks in the city.
The Lions Blood Bank, Chennai, has begun approaching IT companies and factories.
Chief Executive Officer Viswanath K. Nair said that awareness of the need for blood donation is high as many of them have corporate social responsibility initiatives. “The response thus has been quite good,” he added.
