The Tamil Nadu Government is planning to give licenses for blood storage centres in remote villages, as part of establishing a network to ensure availability of blood and blood products across the state within half an hour during emergencies.

According to the state health department sources, these centres would procure and preserve fully screened and tested blood in cold storage, and would not be permitted to collect and test blood from voluntary donors. The centres would get license based on priority of requirement and should satisfy some stipulated criteria in terms of qualified manpower and infrastructure. Further, the centres need to get certification and registration from the Tamil Nadu Blood Transfusion Council, which would constantly monitor the functioning of these centres.

Currently Tamil Nadu has a dedicated network of over 200 blood banks in the state. There are 76 public sector blood banks and 126 blood banks run by private hospitals and NGOs. Though these blood banks are able to procure more than four lakh million units of blood annually, which is sufficient to meet the blood requirements in the state, unavailability of blood in interior areas during emergencies was the reason for setting up the centres, said sources.

Sources said the health department is now in the process of identifying areas for setting up the centres, including hilly region, tribal settlements and remote villages. The department is also utilizing the help of modern technology like Global Positioning System to identify locations that require blood storage centres.

Though the state has a dedicated network of blood banks and blood storage facilities, numerous health workers and doctors operating in rural areas complain of non-availability of quality blood and blood products during emergencies, often proving fatal in life saving situations. For many village hospitals, blood is made available only after two hours due to logistics problems, and the blood storage centres would solve this to a large extent, hoped sources.

Sources said the blood storage centres would follow the norms as per a similar initiative by the Central Government's programme of 'providing blood everywhere, anywhere'.