West Bengal: Health dept to inspect private blood banks amid reports of rampant black-marketing

Kolkata, Aug 26 (IANS) Amid several incidents of black-marketing of blood and plasma surfacing from different corners of West Bengal, the state health department has decided to inspect the available infrastructure of different private blood banks in the state.

“The inspection is intended to check whether these private blood banks have the requisite infrastructure like screening and preserving of collected blood beyond a particular capacity and whether that infrastructure there matches with the amount of blood collected by them by conducting frequent blood donation camps,” a state health department official said.

The decision had been mooted after it came to the notice of state health department that such a private blood bank based out of Beliaghata – the central-eastern part of Kolkata, recently conducted as many as 35 blood donation camps on a single day and collected 1,600 units of blood in that process.

“Considering that both the number of blood banks conducted and the amount of blood collected by one entity on a single day was abnormally high, our officials inspected the available infrastructure in the said blood bank. However, to our surprise we noticed that neither the entity had the requisite infrastructure to conduct the screening nor the facilities to preserve the collected blood. There comes the question of where this huge quantity of blood collected on a single day is gone. Surely, the possibilities of selling that blood at premium prices outside cannot be ruled out,” said the state health department official.

Further investigation in the matter pointed towards yet another irregularity. “In any blood donation camp, the donor concerned is first examined by qualified doctors about his health conditions. We have come to know that instead of hiring qualified doctors in these blood donation camps, medical students from a particular state-run medical college & hospital were hired for those blood donation camps, which is totally against the rules,” the state health department official said.

The state health minister, Dr Saradwat Mukherjee, who is himself an acclaimed medical practitioner said that collecting bloods through donation camps beyond capacity also involves the risks of lack of proper examination of the collected blood and thus resulting in wastage of that blood.

“A detailed investigation on this menace is on. Whoever is behind such rackets will be identified and booked per the legal system,” he added.

On Tuesday, the West Bengal Police’s anti-corruption wing on Tuesday arrested three laboratory technicians of a state-run hospital on charges of black marketing of blood. The three arrested laboratory assistants are attached to state-run Panskura Super Speciality Hospital in East Midnapore district.

Earlier this month, the Calcutta High Court directed the state Health Department to quickly complete its ongoing probe against 11 private blood banks in the state accused of severe irregularities, including illegally selling blood and plasma to other states.

The Health Department had announced a ban on these 11 private banks from conducting blood donation camps anywhere in the state till further orders.

One of these 11 private banks approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the order, and the matter came up for hearing before a bench of Justice Krishna Rao, who did not interfere in the ongoing probe in the matter but set a timeline for the Health Department for the completion.

–IANS

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