Enact legislation to check violations: Whistleblower NGO
Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, February 7
From filing a PIL seeking uniform rates for blood testing across hospitals in 2015, to a raid at a prominent blood bank in Jalandhar in 2018, Phagwara-based NGO Hindustan Welfare Blood Donors’ Club has been playing the role of a watchdog so far as the functioning of blood banks is concerned.
The NGO played a key role in exposing unfair practices by many such banks in the region.
While a vigilant drug controller’s report brought the transfusion of infected blood to an 85-year-old by Phagwara blood bank to the fore, the NGO played a key role in highlighting the transfusion of B positive blood to a patient with O positive blood group. It has been providing all possible aid to the victim and his family members.
Vitin Puri, a member of the NGO and vice president of Federation of Blood Donors’ Association, said, “The patient is in a critical condition. This is a case of criminal negligence. We have been seeking enactment of a blood Act, which proposes stringent punishment in such cases. At a number of blood banks, both private and government sector, lab technicians and pathologists are untrained, careless and negligent. Blood transfusion is a very sensitive matter and should be handled with utmost care.
The NGO has been collecting over 4,000 units annually. It had previously raised alarm on discrepancies in the storage of blood at a blood bank operating from the premises of Gulab Devi Hospital in Jalandhar in August 2018.
Earlier, it has also lodged complaints regarding wrongful disposal of blood (bio-medical waste) by various hospitals.
