In a study survey conducted by the Chennai-based Gaja Consultation Services (P) Ltd (GCS), an agency giving services to blood banks, medical devices industry and pharma industry, it was found that majority of the private blood banks operating in the country were not complying the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act (D&C Act), 1940.

Based on the survey, the agency has decided to submit a proposal to the government of India requesting to initiate adequate measures to ensure availability of quality bloods to the public from the private blood banks operating in the country. As per law, all the blood banks should appoint medical officers as full time employees to conduct effective QBTS (Quality Blood Transfusion System) in the units. GCS alleges that most of the medical officers in the blood banks are working on part time basis and engaged in private practices.

The study survey shows that in certain blood banks the activities such as selection of donors, blood transfusions, etc are carried out in the absence of medical officers, and the work of medical officers is carried out by lab technicians in the units. The lab technicians are putting the signature of medical officers in the records and register them in later stages. So the government has to pay more attention to the functioning of private blood banks in the country, said GCS managing director N Selvaraju.

Selvaraju said that since the people are unaware of the provisions of D&C Act in respect of blood banks, NGOs like Consumer Protection Council can take this matter seriously and interfere in the operations of the blood bank units. According to him, blood and blood products contribute to the saving of millions of lives every year and improve the life expectancy of patients suffering from life-threatening conditions, besides supporting complex medical and surgical procedures.

He said certain private medical practitioners, who run small hospitals, are collecting blood for their patients without any adequate facility for storage, collection and testing. The collected blood is tested only for the A B O compatibility, and the test for communicable diseases is not done.

“Some unscrupulous elements are selling blood bags clandestinely to doctors and unlicensed blood banks. The safety and standards of such blood bags are questionable. The authorities have to enquire their source of getting blood bags for collecting the blood,” he told Pharmabiz.

He added that the provisions of D&C Act, 1940 for the compliance of blood banks would fail unless the government took cognizance of the wrong practices being carried out in the licensed blood bank institutions in the country.