Hospital blood bank relies heavily on students, but admission delay meant no camps at colleges, causing shortage for 15 days

Dip in blood at Sassoon

Hospital blood bank relies heavily on students, but admission delay meant no camps at colleges, causing shortage for 15 days

Besides students and their parents, the delay in admissions to junior colleges across the city caused much anxiety to authorities at the Sassoon General Hospital blood bank.

For 15 days, there was severe shortage of blood at the bank, said staffers. They said delayed admissions to junior colleges meant blood donation camps in colleges had to be postponed.

Sharad Mugave, medical social worker and chief coordinator of blood donation camps at the Sassoon blood bank, said that 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the hospital's blood requirement was met through camps in colleges.

"Usually, the admissions happen by the second or third week of June, which is the right time to hold camps.

Besides the senior students, we get a lot of fresh-to-college juniors, who are enthusiastic about donating blood," said Mugave. "But this time we had to cancel camps across colleges as admissions have been postponed and barely a few students are attending colleges."

Other arrangements
The situation had become so grim a few days ago that full blood bags were being provided only for emergency surgeries, and planned surgeries were either postponed or arrangements were made for blood from other blood banks.

"Yes, a few surgeries that were not life threatening and could wait were put off for 2-3 days. In other cases, blood banks outside the hospital came to the rescue," Mugave.

The shortage has now been fulfilled by organising camps in offices.

"We organised two camps last week and collected about 280 bottles. Our daily requirement is around 50 bottles of blood," he added.

Other blood banks agreed that a large percentage of voluntary blood donation in the city depends on students and any postponement of camps can create issues.

"About 50 per cent of our blood comes through donation camps in colleges. It is true that if camps are scheduled and then admissions get postponed, we can have a problem," said Dr Sanjeev Ketkar, head of the blood bank at Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital.

Dr Atul Kulkarni, director of Jankalyan Raktapedhi said that 30 per cent of blood donors at his blood bank are students.

"We were aware of the delayed admissions and in anticipation we slotted camps at corporate houses and industrial centres rather than colleges. That is why we haven't faced any major shortage. Blood banks should have shifted their focus to avoid this shortage," said Kulkarni, whose centre collects about 1,500 bags of blood through voluntary donors every month.