Hyderabad, August 16: Some private blood banks in the state charge more for supplying blood, in violation of the law.
The government’s AP State Aids Control Society has fixed the maximum price at Rs.550 for a unit of blood, which includes maintenance, equipment and test charges. Depending on the urgency and rarity of the blood group, private blood banks are selling the blood for between Rs.600 and Rs.2,000 per unit (350 ml).
The five mandatory tests (for HIV, Hepatitis B and C, malaria and venereal disease) are also not always done, according to NGOs, Drugs Control Administration authorities and Red Cross Society medical officers. Testing donor samples for these diseases is mandatory and not doing so compromises the safety of the blood.
Clearly there’s little check on the activities of blood banks. Says a medical officer of the Red Cross Blood Bank: “One of the factors that deters blood donation is apprehension about its misuse. The regulatory and monitoring body, the Blood Bank Committee, should be more stringent in checking the illegal sale of blood, which is prevalent in certain private blood banks in the state.”
Mr Yogesh Raj Shrivastava, a pharmacist who has donated blood 100 times, said, “From personal experiences of friends and relatives, we found that some blood banks sell the blood for prices ranging from Rs.800 to Rs.1,500 or even Rs.2,000 depending on how rare the blood group is and the urgency of the patient’s requirement. There are cases when doctors recommend that patients go to a particular private blood bank. Obviously, the doctor gets a commission for his recommendation.”
Mr Uday Bhaskar, secretary general of the All India Drugs Control Officers’ Confederation, says: “While there’s almost always a shortage of donors and blood in government hospitals and blood banks attached to them, for many corporate blood banks, the sale of blood has become a profitable activity. There’s heavy competition among them. that have ways of attracting donors. Also, certain corporate hospitals take a lump sum amount from patients in the guise of administrative and user charges instead of adhering to the government rule of Rs.5