Sankalp India Foundation's programs have often been designed with focus on maximizing benefit to the end recipient. Our Rakta Kranti program however is a little different. Here the focus is the donor the selfless, heroic blood donor. Through the nearly 950 blood donation drives and approximately 83000 units of blood collected, we have focused only on quality in drive execution with maximum compliance to standards.
Whose responsibility is it to provision safe blood for patients in need? The patient/patient family? or the hospital/blood bank? or the blood donor/donor organizations or all of them together?
The pathology department of JJM Medical College Davangere with it's associated blood bank at Bapuji Hospital organized a one day workshop on “Voluntary Blood Donation and Appropriate use of Blood Components” to promote voluntary blood donation and sensitize the medical fraternity about the need for rationale utilization of available blood resources.
National Voluntary Blood Donation Day is celebrated in India on 1st of October every year to share the need and importance of the blood in the life of an individual. It was first started celebrating on 1st of October in the year 1975 through the Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology.
August was a month of plenty in Bangalore - at least as far as blood is concerned. Unfortunately, still several blood donation camps are not carefully planned keeping in mind the demand of blood. When the colleges reopen after the summer vacation, there are several institutions who express desire to conduct camps. Most blood banks just choose to take up the opportunity to collect rather than engage with the organizers and attempt to better schedule the dates.
“Bulk transfer of blood between blood banks of all sectors permitted by NBTC” was published in the Volume 6 Issue 4 of Sankalp Patrika. The good news is that at least the State Government of Karnataka has accepted the guideline issues by NBTC in its totality in the Second Meeting of the Technical Expert Committee of KSBTC help on 11 March 2016. This is great news for the blood banks in the state.
India is striving to achieve the target of 100% voluntary blood donation by 2020. National Blood Transfusion Council, National AIDS Control Organisation, Federation of Indian Blood Donation Organisations and all other stakeholders agree to the goal. The primary focus appears to increase voluntary blood donation to meet the ever growing demand for blood in the country. Is increasing supply to meet the demand the only way?
The following are some recommendations which we believe will help in reducing events of non-compliance in blood donation camps.
Regular blood donors are the cornerstone of blood safety and voluntary blood donation. The retention of blood donors is directly related with the experience they have when they come to donate blood. Quality, safety and donor retention are inseparable. Continuous focus on quality and safety is an essential responsibility of every organisation which is involved in the process of voluntary blood donation.
Despite being an institution of repute and a medical hub in the southern part of Bangalore city, their views towards voluntary blood donation are unfortunate.
The following are the highlights of the activities at the Thalassemia Prevention, Management and Cure Program of Sankalp India Foundation for the month of August.
After the busy summer months of organising a huge number of camps, Sankalp slowed down the pace in August. During the month of August, plenty of organisations plan for blood donation drives due to Independence Day. Degree colleges would also have started classes and many of them plan for drives.
