Against the backdrop of hospitals facing acute shortage of blood in the state, the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) has issued directions to the hospitals to arrange for blood for patients in need and not to hold them responsible if they can't arrange for it. According to the National Blood Policy, hospitals have to arrange for blood, an SBTC official stated.

Relatives can approach the SBTC, said an official, if any hospital is found flouting rules and can approach it for redressal of their grievances.

In order to bring in more accountability towards making safer blood available at the point of care, Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past had suspended the licenses of 7 blood banks and cancelled one based on 369 inspections done during 2013-14 across Maharashtra. The state today has 303 blood banks and 3 cord blood banks.

Suspensions and cancellations were made for violation of the provisions of Drugs & Cosmetics (D&C) Act as the blood banks had failed to operate efficiently due to lack of monitoring by technically qualified staff. The blood banks were also found faltering in terms of maintaining a register of work done duly signed by a medical officer and compliance in terms of staff strength and instrumentation to successfully accomplish the operations of a blood bank.

The Maharashtra FDA probe into 19 blood banks in the city found that majority of them have been charging prices higher than the rates fixed by the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC). Around 16 blood banks were overcharging anywhere between Rs. 50 and Rs. 500. A government resolution in June 2014 had set Rs. 1,450 as the price for one unit of whole blood, Rs. 400 for fresh frozen plasma, Rs. 400 for one unit of platelets and Rs. 250 for cryoprecipitate.

In November last year, the FDA officials inspected 309 blood banks across the state, of which 72 were found to have discrepancies in charging process. Out of the 72 blood banks, 19 were from Mumbai alone.

According to official records, there was an increase in blood collection from 3. 6 lakh units in 1997 to 14.76 lakh units in 2014 through a six fold increase in blood donation camps across the state.

On an average daily, Mumbai alone requires more than 700 units of 350ml whole blood, platelets or plasma. The demand goes up during the rains because of monsoon-related ailments. In a year, around 2.7 lakh people donate blood in Mumbai, of which up to 40,000 are from colleges. Another 40,000-odd donors are from community organisations, while others are from religious and corporate organisations.