Blood banks asked to install sterile connecting devices to avoid wastage
These devices will help avoid wastage of blood during blood transfusion in paediatric patients who require less amount of blood. It will also avoid multiple donor exposure during blood transfusion in paediatric patients, officials said
In a bid to avoid wastage of blood and multiple donor exposure during blood transfusion, the state health department has made it mandatory for blood banks across the state to install sterile connecting devices for aliquots of whole blood bags, state health department officials said on Thursday.
A state health ministry official on condition of anonymity said, “Sterile connecting devices are machines used for making aliquots of whole blood bags for paediatric patients as per the prescription of the paediatrician, and re-use of the remaining part of these blood bags for subsequent transfusion to the same child to avoid possible risk of multiple donor exposure.”
These devices will help avoid wastage of blood during blood transfusion in paediatric patients who require less amount of blood. It will also avoid multiple donor exposure during blood transfusion in paediatric patients, officials said.
Health minister Tanaji Sawant said, “To avoid wastage of blood, orders have been given to both private and government blood banks to install sterile connecting devices for aliquots of whole blood bags. This will help to prevent wastage of life-saving blood. The devices will be made available at government blood banks that currently don’t have the devices. Children undergoing blood transfusion will benefit from this, as it will avoid multiple donor exposure.”
Officials said that a whole blood bag of 350 ml is issued to paediatric patients but at a time, they require transfusion of blood in small quantities of around 50 to 100 ml. As a result, the blood transfusion is not very accurate and the remaining part of the blood bag is discarded. In case the same patients require blood once again in the next few days, one more whole blood bag of 350 ml is issued and the required quantity of blood is transfused to the paediatric patient and the remaining blood bag is again discarded.
Dr Nagnath Yempalay, district civil surgeon of Pune district, on Friday said that they will issue a letter to all blood banks in the district to submit details of availability of sterile connecting devices. “The blood banks will be asked to install the devices on priority or face action. In case of availability of devices, the blood banks will be asked to submit details about whether the machines are working, the number of aliquot bags issued, the number of trained staff operating the machines, and the vaccination status of the staff operating the machines,” he said.
The State Blood Transfusion Council has 373 blood blanks registered with it, out of which 57 (public and private) blood banks are from Pune district alone. Currently, only eight out of the 31 major government blood banks across the state have the said devices and only three blood banks from the 14 government medical colleges have these devices installed.
