Amidst reports that most of the blood banks in Andhra Pradesh, including those run by the government, are flouting the guidelines and the Drug Control Administration had served notices on them, it is now known that there is not a single quality control centre (QCC) to check whether the blood collected by the blood banks is safe and used only after the five mandatory tests for Hepatitis-B, Hepatitis-C, malaria, HIV and venereal diseases. The blood is being sent to MGR Hospital in Chennai to verify if the five mandatory tests are being conducted by the blood banks.

According to a Health Department official, in October last year it was decided to designate the Institute of Preventive Medicine in the city as the QCC, but nothing came out of the proposal so far. The central blood bank at the IPM had to be upgraded to handle the increase in the number of tests and the storage facilities expanded to make it a QCC. But this is yet to be done as funds have not been sanctioned so far.

Had the QCC been set up, one per cent of the blood collected every month by the private blood banks would have been sent to it to confirm whether mandatory tests were being conducted. District Leprosy centres would also have been required to sent random samples of blood collected from banks to the QCC.

According to the Health Department officials, it was also planned that blood bags, reagents, and disposable materials would be tested at the QCC. The need for establishing the QCC was felt because the officials had no way to check if the five mandatory tests were being carried out by the blood banks.

As of now the only method officials had to ensure safety was to check the records of the blood banks. But there was enough scope for tampering in spite of inspections being conducted regularly.

The officials said though there had been a delay in establishing the QCC, the decision figured prominently in this year's action plan of the Andhra Pradesh State Aids control Society (APSACS).

It may be recalled that the DCA officials had inspected 64 blood banks in the state recently and found most of them flouting the guidelines. While some of them had no refrigeration and storage facilities, some did not maintain any registers of the donors. Quite a few blood banks did not have testing facilities. There were lapses even in the large government hospitals like Osmania, Gandhi and Fever Hospital.