Surprise raid exposed loopholes in blood bank

VARANASI: If you are a blood donor or a recipient waiting to donate or receive blood at SPG hospital (government divisional hospital in the region), better change the option and go to other approved blood banks, as the surprise raid of district health administration on Friday evening exposed a number of loopholes in the operation of blood bank in the hospital.
"It was surprising to note that the hospital with over 300 bed capacity and round the clock operational blood bank did not have a pathologist for the last one year," said the CMO, while talking to TOI on Saturday. Similarly, lack of ELISA analyzer and non-functional AC at the centre also raised concern. Even the hygiene and sanitation around the blood bank was enough to raise eyebrows, he added.
It may be mentioned that the surprise raid team comprising of CMO, additional CMO, Dr Jung Bahadur Singh and drug inspector, Ejaz Ahmed, conducted raids at blood banks of SPG hospital and other privately operated blood banks in Lanka area on Friday evening.
According to Ejaz Ahmed, drug inspector, the dates on the packets of blood units were not clearly mentioned and the refrigerator in which the packets were preserved was also left in unhygienic condition. Similarly, sanitary condition of the resting room, that was used by blood donors after donating blood, was also a matter of concern, he added.
Surprisingly, none of the blood bank staff, including staff nurse or ward boy, was present during the raid while poor sanitary condition of the blood bank was enough to include the laxity of sanitary workers.
Taking a strong note of loopholes found in the surprise raid, the CMO said, "the proforma giving details of the facilities and irregularities along with recommendations of the team has already been sent to the state health department. Some of the blood unit samples have also been sent to the drug controller office in Lucknow." The surprise raids would continue in the city and licenses of blood banks, who are found violating the norms, would be cancelled, he added.