Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada J. Krishna Palemar on Monday asked people to file complaints with the Deputy Commissioner if any hospital or doctor refused to accept blood purchased from the blood bank run by the Indian Red Cross Society.
Hospitals or doctors could not insist on patients purchasing blood only from blood banks managed by hospitals they are admitted to or blood supplied by them, he said.
The Minister said this after Chandrahasa, a social worker from Bayar, brought to his notice at a function here that some hospitals were insisting on patients buying blood from in-house blood banks.
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If this trend was not curbed, there was no use in donating blood to the IRCS blood bank, Mr. Chandrahasa said at a function organised by the blood bank to mark World Blood Donor Day.
Mr. Palemar said it was always the poor who came forward to donate. The rich should take the lead in blood donation.
Hospitals and blood banks should not collect money from below the poverty line (BPL) card-holders for supplying blood to them, he said.
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The Minister felicitated six persons for promoting blood donation through various activities, on the occasion.
S.P. Gurudasa, teacher at S.N.M. Polytechnic College, Moodbidri, was also felicitated. He was representing J.J. Pinto, the principal of the college, who could not attend the function.
Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj B. Devdas Rai, chairman, Dakshina Kannada unit of the IRCS, spoke.
‘Good response'
Our Udupi Staff Correspondent reports:
Over a hundred students and faculty members of Manipal University donated blood at a camp on Monday to mark World Blood Donor Day at Kasturba Hospital here.
According to a press release issued by the university, director of the blood bank at Kasturba Hospital Sudha Bhat said that a large number of students had turned up for donating blood in keeping with this year's slogan, “New blood for the world”.
The camp evoked good response from voluntary donors as well. Hindustan Latex Ltd., a subsidiary of the Government of India, had stuck many posters at the venue and provided soft drinks to donors. Vijay Krishnan, Marketing Manager, Hindustan Latex, was present.