The establishment of the National Blood Transfusion Authority (NBTA), to streamline the blood transfusion services in the country, may not become a reality in the near future as different government departments have taken objections to various clauses in the draft bill, which is being prepared by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), an arm of the union health ministry.

Aiming to streamline the blood transfusion services in the country and also to check the selling of spurious blood products and using of tainted blood for transfusion NACO has been in the process of bringing a bill to set up the NBTA. But, the progress on the same has been extremely slow due to the objections raised by various ministries.

According to sources in the health ministry, various government departments including the ministry of finance, Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) and the union law ministry, inter alia, have taken objections to certain clauses in the draft bill. “It will take a long time, as several departments have sought clarifications on a number of clauses in the bill and the process may take a long time before it is introduced in Parliament for its final nod”, sources said.

The NBTA is being established to regulate all activities related to the blood collection and transfusion and will make good laboratory practices mandatory for the blood banks. There are more than 2300 licensed blood banks in the country and health ministry is providing technical and financial support to around 1230 of the public and charitable blood banks. India already has a National Blood Policy and a National Blood Programme to ensure adequate supply of safe and quality blood. But the new legislation is being proposed to define the roles of these authorities clearly and ensure quality of blood banks and infection-free transfusions.

The extremely slow pace of progress in the establishment of the NBTA has drawn flak from the parliamentary committee attached to the health ministry. “The Committee is pained at the slow progress in establishing the National Blood Transfusion Authority and setting up of a Plasma Fractionation Plant. Both these initiatives are very important. It is very disappointing that the same still remains on paper even after two years”, the parliamentary panel in its latest report had said.