Vijyoti, a corporate social enterprise, is in advanced discussion with the Union government to mandate a Patient Blood Management (PBM) guideline to improve to patient safety during transfusion. Through a dedicated Steering Committee representing healthcare experts, clinicians, pharmacology and consumer forums it will devise a PBM protocol for India before May this year.

Annually India reports 3 million units of blood shortage. The country’s 1.2 billion people, require 12 million units of blood a year. Only 9 million blood units are collected creating a 25 per cent deficit. In summer, India experiences 50 per cent blood shortfall. PBM is an international best practice initiative for transfusion medicine to minimise mortality, morbidity, hospital acquired infection and reduce patient cost.

This shortage has led to a spurt in professional donors cashing in on the need to support desperate patients besides a flourishing black market. India blood market size is valued at Rs. 18,000 crore and one unit of blood costs around Rs. 1,500. “The adoption of PBM is limited in India. There is a need for a change in mind set to adopt PBM. We are keen to enable a focused treatment procedures and therapeutic interventions when blood and blood products are used for trauma or surgery and other medical emergencies,” said Vijay G. Pande, managing director, Vijyoti told Pharmabiz.

From 2010 WHO member states were required to implement PBM in a timely manner. The objective was to optimise use of blood products based on evidence-based clinical decisions to prevent blood scarcity. Australia, US, Japan, 60 per cent of EU states besides Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and a few African states, have implemented PBM.

“Our government has evinced interest and we are working towards a PBM policy. Blood is scare and a disturbing trend in India. Despite the Supreme Court 1996 order prohibiting use of blood and blood products indiscriminately, a number of unscrupulous operators prevail and indulge in malpractices. Therefore we are looking at both education and advocacy. We see blood and blood components to have generated billions of dollars in revenue for entities that deal in non-profit blood supply even though profiteering is not the motto in blood banking,” pointed out Pande.

“Therefore the Steering committee will bring on board policy makers for speedy implementation of PBM. We are looking to adopt our guideline based on the Australia model where PBM addresses specific norms for trauma, cardiac surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics among others,” he added.

According to Dr. Yatin Mehta, chairman, critical care and anaesthesiology- Medanta, the biggest morbidity and mortality indicator is the number of blood units transfused that not only increases hospital acquired infections – sepsis – but also ICU stay, hospital length of stay, and mortality increases according to the number of unnecessary blood transfusion.