Nominated RBCs awaiting funds promised by Sindh govt

By Mukhtar Alam

KARACHI: While a dearth of safe blood provision to patients has always been a source of concern, three blood banks of Karachi nominated for upgradation as regional blood centres (RBC), under the national safe blood transfusion programme, are waiting for the release of funds promised by the Sindh government for making them functional, it emerged recently.

Sources privy to safe blood initiatives in the country shared that three blood banks functioning at Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) were designated by the authorities for raising their status as RBCs, under the second phase projects of the government’s safe blood transfusion scheme over four years back.

“Had these proposed RBCs been allowed to expand their services on a priority basis for other selective hospital-based blood banks in the city the deserving population including the thalassemia children would have seen free of cost and safe supply of blood in their cases as well,” the sources remarked.

It was learnt that following establishment of various RBCs in the first phase, the federal government moved for other set of regional centres in late 2018, while related decisions were taken by the Sindh government in August 2019.

Social Track contacted authorities in the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority (SBTA) and the Sindh Health Department to know about the development status of the three RBCs, provision of proposed Sindh government funds to them on a yearly basis, like the four other functional RBCs, but to no avail.

It was further learnt that the three blood banks run by DUHS management, Patients’ Aids Foundation at JPMC and Patients Welfare Association at CHK have been equipped with special machines and gadgets by the German government about two years back.

A source said that early provision of funds from the Sindh government to new RBCs will certainly enable them to work towards providing free of cost blood supplies to patients and encouraging voluntary blood donors, which is critically low.

Data suggests that all the SBTA registered or licenced blood banks across the province collectively received 908, 945 donors (voluntary-12.7% and replacement or exchange-87.3%) in 2023, while the JPMC blood bank alone attended a total of 59,309 blood donors the same year, of whom only 2.4% were voluntary donors, against 97.6% replacement/family/exchange donors.

At the same time, the data also hinted about presence of unsafe blood donors among the population. As per SBTA data, blood banks through screening for Transfusion-Transmitted Infections (TTIs) found overall 4.8% of donors as reactive cases. On the other hand, JPMC bank found 6.37% of the donors suffering from TTIs.

Referring to the said findings, a source from the blood bank background, requesting not to be named, commented that as per the data there was a dire need to augment voluntary blood donation as well as increasing screening process without any delay.

Tracing the history of safe transfusion scheme, the source said that the Sindh government had decided to dedicate an unused portion of a building in the Sindh Government Hospital, Korangi-5, for housing the fifth RBC in Sindh in the mid-2019.

However, things did not go in right direction and as such the idea of having another RBC in Karachi could not be realised, or else the Korangi RBC, as per the plan, could have fed the blood banks at different hospitals, including Landhi Medical Complex, Gizri Maternity Hospital, Landhi Social Security Hospital, and Sindh Government Children Hospital New Karachi, added the source.

When contacted, Dr Uzma Atta, Director of DUHS blood bank at Ojha campus, and in-charge of the DUHS-RBC project, said that the university authorities have extended all support to the project aimed at mobilising voluntary blood donors and processing the donations, including screening for TTIs and preparing components for an ultimate supply to four hospital-based banks—DUHS Ojha Campus, Malir-Saudabad Sindh Government Hospital, Sindh Social Security Hospital Landhi and Sindh Government Hospital, Ibrahim Hydri.

According to her, the Dow RBC, which has been catering to the blood needs of patients who receive treatment at various Ojha campus hospitals and institutes, is waiting for the sanction of recurring budget and the amount needed for the first year of commissioning plan from the Sindh government.

“It is likely that financial matters will be finalised soon, following which we, with a target of attending initially 20,000 donors a year, will undertake massive campaigns for blood collection and promotion of a voluntary donors culture, while on the other hand we will start supplying blood or blood products to the associated blood banks and other needy quarters free of cost,” Dr Ata stated.

“There were only 2% of voluntary blood donors among around 20,000 donors attended at DUHS blood centre during a period from July 2023 to June 2024,” she noted, adding that the number of voluntary blood donors can be increased only through launching aggressive campaigns.

She also gave a breakdown of blood bags screened for TTIs at DUHS as: HIV (0.02%), hepatitis B (1.6%), hepatitis C (0.8%), syphilis (1.4%) and malarial parasite (0.14%), saying all blood donations have to go through CLIA testing or nucleic acid testing.

Dr Anwar Ahmed, Incharge of JPMC blood bank, said that JPMC has already started utilising the equipment donated by German KfW and it will start feeding four blood banks, including those located at the National Institute of Child Health, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and Gizri Maternity Home as soon as the government financing is made available.

“We will have to acquire more human resources and logistic means, besides meeting the requirement of the voluntary blood collection system,” he said.

Dr Hamza H, Vice President of the Patients Welfare Association run by DMC students at CHK said that his association was waiting to hear something concrete and positive towards the RBC project that was initiated in 2018-19. “Lately, SBTA has asked for submitting the requirements with regard to the operational phase of the centre and the attached HBBs,” he said, adding: “We will need a regular funding from the government to expand our operations although scientific equipment have been received and being used for limited purposes.

Courtesy: Social Track, weekly.