Maharashtra government is planning to roll out 80 blood storage centres in remote districts of Maharashtra in the coming four months as a part of its Blood-on-Call scheme. The scheme as of today has 135 blood storage centres functioning in coordination with 545 registered healthcare institutions of the state.

These centres will be operational after completion of the tendering process followed by electrical and civil work under the Government's Project Implementation Plan (PIP) for the financial year 2014-15.

Touted as the first-of-its-kind blood scheme in the country with its call centre at Pune, the scheme has been able to service 872 requests from across the state out of the 1210 reserved calls it received since its inception in January 7, 2014. Says Dr Sanjay Jadhav, director, State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC), which is implementing the scheme on behalf of the state government, "The service is over a month old now and the government has woken up to the reality that around 46 per cent of blood storage centres are concentrated in the four districts of Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune and Thane. Remaining 54 per cent of storage centres are scattered in the remaining 30 districts of Maharashtra."

The state government is optimistic of the fact that the scheme will take off in a big way as there has been an increase in voluntary blood donation from 38 to 95 per cent between 1997 to 2014.

"There has been an increase in blood collection from 3. 6 lac units in 1997 to 14.76 lac units in 2014 through a six fold increase in blood donation camps across the state. The scheme envisages to collect blood through blood donation camps to be organised across the state," informs Dr Jadhav.

Estimated to have kick started with a cost Rs. 10 crore, the scheme will also set up seven storage centres at Dahanu, Vashi, Santacruz, Malvani, Mulund, Kandivali and Kurla under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Three centres in Mumbai are already operational at JJ Mahanagar Blood Bank, Railway Hospital Blood Bank and Bombay Port Trust (BPT).

Blood-on-Call scheme saw the light of the day after the formulation of a National Blood Policy in 2002 followed by an action plan in 2003 to ensure safe and adequate supply of blood to the patients. Aimed at facilitating blood supply to patients scheduled to undergo surgeries and medical procedures, the facility can be accessed by dialing a dedicated helpline number "104". Upon receiving the call, blood will be transported on motorcycle to hospitals and nursing homes in specially fitted cold storage boxes falling within a radius of 50 kms.