Rare blood wastage: Donors blame private hosps

THE preference of private hospitals to use freshly-donated blood rather than blood stored in governmentrun blood banks is resulting in wastage, especially of rare phenotypes, as the stored units end up being discarded after expiration.

- SINDUJA JANE

Government doctors attribute this to the fear of private hospitals that the stored blood would not have been properly screened for diseases.

On April 24, the staff at the Government Villupuram Medical College Hospital were forced to discard one unit of blood of the rare 'hh' type after it expired even though a private hospital in Vellore had needed blood from the group earlier in the month.

Blood donors alleged that the private hospital opted to take fresh blood from a donor rather than use the banked blood.

Only one in 7,600 to 10,000 people in India has blood belonging to the 'hh' group, commonly known as the Bombay blood group.