Karnataka government has chalked out a plan to upgrade its 1,600 Primary Health Centres [PHCs] with better equipment and facilities. The government is making every effort to set up blood banks in the five districts including Haveri, Koppal and Chamarajanagar. The blood banks in the PHCs will be modernised to provide the required blood units.

Dr. A B Malakaraddy, minister for health and family welfare, government of Karnataka said at the inauguration of the 26th National Conference of the Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology [ISBTI] that the Supreme Court order banning the practice of private blood donations has made it difficult for providing blood to the hospitals. "In spite of the expertise and the infrastructure at the taluk hospitals which are funded by World Bank and aid from Germany, operations could not be performed due to the non-availability of blood."

The health minister said that the Central government's budgetary allocation for health is a meagre 0.9 per cent while other developing countries set apart 9 to 14 per cent towards national healthcare programmes. "If the centre allocates 5 per cent to healthcare then the current scenario would be different," informed Dr. Malakaraddy.

Measures to control the infectious and contagious diseases were financed from State government funds. "We had been waiting for aid from the Centre for malaria control activities which is still not disbursed," he added.

The State would ensure improvement of the present facilities in maternity healthcare. "We have provided mid-wives with delivery kits. This has helped to bring down the infant mortality rate from 58 per cent to 54 per cent," said Dr. Malakaraddy.

Dr. H Sudarshan, chairman, Task Force on Health and Family Welfare, government of Karnataka said that it was vital to have a post graduate diploma in blood transfusion medicine. There is a lack of skilled technicians and doctors in the area of blood banking which was critical to health care improvement.

According to him, in Karnataka the transmission of HIV through blood transfusion was 0.99 per cent. He also brought to light the presence of blood trading as many of the rural areas blood was in short supply during emergencies. It is vital to comprehend the needs of the rural folks and work towards providing safe blood at the right time.

The Task Force chief said that there were several blood banks exploiting people and indulging in increasing price of blood. He said that the scam was similar to the kidney racket in the state which is yet to be unearthed.

Awards were presented on the occasion to those who excelled in the field of blood transfusion. The ISBTI Award [Technical] was given to H P Bodhanwala. The J R Jolly Award was given to Chandra Vishwanath, National Plasma Fractionation Centre, Mumbai. AN Kashyap Award for Motivation was given to Subash Bhaskar. S P Mandelia Award was presented to Nishan Chaterjee. In the institutional category, S P Mandelia Award was given to Swasthya Kalyan Blood Bank in Jaipur.