Half of Delhi’s blood banks operating without valid licence, says report

More than half of the blood banks in the national Capital were functioning without valid licences as there was a delay in the processing applications, a CAG report tabled in Delhi Assembly on Tuesday stated. Of the 68 functional blood banks in Delhi, a total of 32 were not updating the information pertaining to the blood on the National Health Portal regarding the availability of the blood.

"The Delhi government is now already working on a plan to upload the information about the availability of blood and its type on a common portal. The plan has been approved at a recent meeting held by the Delhi State Blood Transfusion Council," a senior Delhi government official said.

The Delhi government's biggest hospital --Lok Nayak did not have a medical officer during 2014-2017, the report claimed. The report also highlighted the shortage of inspectors in the blood banks.

"This has been happening for many years now. The condition of the blood banks in the city is disappointing. The officials have been giving false promises for way too long but nothing has been done. Such irregularities were pointed out in previous reports as well,' said a senior doctor from a Delhi government hospital.

The mechanism of extraction, testing and storage of blood in hygienic conditions to ensure optimal availability and use of quality blood was also questioned.

The report further pointed out that voluntary blood collection declined from 54.55 percent during 2014-15 to 45.20 percent during 2016-17. No blood bank of the city government and the municipal corporations of Delhi were performing Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAT) screening affecting the quality of blood, it said.

The CAG also said that "oversight and monitoring over the functioning of blood banks were inadequate".