Blood management solutions need to get more attention as doctors say that government medical colleges should establish a separate department for dealing with transfusion medicine for improving the standards of blood bank and transfusion services.
Private medical colleges, including the JSS Medical College, have started transfusion medicine.
Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMCRI) Director and Dean B. Krishnamurthy told The Hindu that transfusion medicine can improve the care of blood donor as well as recipient.
Though the blood management system — donation, component separation, and transfusion — was being handled based on the set guidelines, there are still some areas that need attention. It may be storage, transfusion, dealing with unused blood units and so on, he explained.
There is also a need for sensitising the doctors on blood transfusion.
Dr. Krishnamurthy said, “If the transfusion medicine department was set up, blood banks will get more faculty, skilled hands and PG students, streamlining the management. It will also help initiate research activities.”
Arguing that awareness on blood donation was still lacking in rural areas, he said although it is much better when compared to the previous years, it can still improve for saving the lives of people.
With the rise in the number of road accidents, necessitating emergency treatment, availability of certain rare blood groups gains importance, Dr. Krishnamurthy said.
“We had a case sometime ago where a patient at K.R. Hospital was in need of Bombay blood group (h/h blood group), a rare blood group. The donor was available at Davangere and we had to arrange blood donation from the person,” he said.
K.R. Hospital, which is attached to the MMCRI, has a blood bank managed by the faculty and staff from the Department of Pathology, MMCRI, Mysuru. “The blood bank normally keeps buffer stock of blood units as we tend to get more emergency cases. The attendants of the patients for whom blood was required, have to replace the blood unit with another unit of any group,” said Dr. Krishnamurthy.
Senior pathologist Ganesh, who has been coordinating blood donation camps here working with blood banks, said the blood donor day is one occasion where donors are felicitated for their noble act of saving lives by donating their blood.
“More blood donation camps are helping draw donors and replenish the stock to help save lives. Awareness has improved but there is scope for further improvement,” he said.
