The state health ministry may have announced a set of norms to curb malpractices at blood banks and bring down the irregularities in the prices of blood bags, but investigations by sunday mid-day discovered that hapless patients are still being charged exorbitant rates for blood and it’s components.

At Hinduja hospital, Jaslok hospital as well as Bombay hospital the charges for whole blood, Freshly Frozen Plasma (FFP), platelets and cryoprecipitate were several times higher than the rates set by the state health ministry. To make matters worse the cost of a unit of blood increases by at least Rs 200 depending the class of the room.

The National Blood Transfusion Council recently sent out a circular announcing the revision of the processing charges of blood and its components where the charges for blood bags at all blood banks were increased from the 2011 rates (see box). While the processing fee per unit of blood supplied for transfusion was set at Rs 850, along with a ban on hospitals from asking patients to organize replacement donors, private hospitals unabashedly continue to charge arbitrary rates.