M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, May 2: The blood bank in Daltonganj is struggling to get units of blood. There are days every week when the health team’s worry of the blood bank getting ‘dry’ increases more than usual.
The collection of blood gets poor in summer and Covid has also cast a shadow on it.
Palamu civil surgeon Dr Anil Kumar said, “We keep urging the institutions that donate blood to us, to keep blood donation going but there comes an occasion when dryness looms large.”
“This Sunday (May 1), our blood bank had only 104 units,” he added.
There are around 110 patients with sickle anaemia, thalassemia, leukaemia and other blood disorders who need blood every month and it is of prime concern to keep blood ready for them.
On April 30, the medical superintendent Dr Dilip Kumar Singh issued a notice urging medical officers and other staff of MMCH Daltonganj to donate blood.
However, Palamu CS Dr Anil Kumar said, “Not a single unit of blood could be collected in the MMCH Daltonganj on April 30.”
Reminded that words doing the rounds are that an FIR has been lodged against four doctors and seven others and now no medical officer or any health worker will join this public cause when the administration is so harsh on them. On this, the Palamu CS said “All that I would say is that it was 3 months ago that I had donated blood and now I am again eager to donate blood.”
There is a small blood storage facility at one sub-divisional hospital in Hussainabad but it is not a blood bank. It does collect blood and then pouches of blood are sent to the blood bank in Daltonganj for tests etc.
However, the sub-divisional hospital Chhatarpur does not even have the smallest blood storage facility.
The Chhatarpur sub-divisional hospital is situated on NH 98 and is the first big government hospital to cater to medical emergencies in the event of NH accidents. But this hospital leans upon the blood bank Daltonganj which is 48 kilometres away from Chhatarpur.
Dr Jitender Kumar, assistant professor MMCH Daltonganj, said there are too many nursing homes here which take tested blood from us for their patients but none of the nursing homes ever bother to give even one unit of blood.
“This is unfair. The nursing homes should also replenish our stock of blood in the blood bank. It would be in the fitness of things if sub-divisional hospital Chhatarpur is equipped with even small storage of blood,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Palamu Civil surgeon has a great word of praise for cops who have been helping the needy by donating blood in times of need.
Once Palamu SP Chandan Kumar Sinha donated a unit of blood to a youth who got critically injured in a road accident. His boys later jumped on the bandwagon of the blood donation spree.
