Protest greets govt’s new blood procurement rules

Ranchi: City-based activists and several voluntary organizations on Wednesday started a two-day-long

dharna

outside Raj Bhawan to demand the rollback of

Jharkhand

State Aids Control Society’s (JSACS) new laws on

blood

unit procurement. The activists claimed the new directives were issued without taking the mandatory consent of the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC). They also announced to go on an indefinite hunger strike and move the court against the directives.

“The new directives will do more harm than good. Private nursing homes and charitable hospitals, which rely on government blood banks for blood components, will be unable to cater to their patients, who mostly come from the economically weaker sections of the society,” Atul Gera, founder of Ranchi-based Life Savers, a voluntary organisation which organizes blood donation camps across the state, said.

On November 20, JSACS had issued a directive stating that private hospitals and their patients will not be able to collect blood units for free from state-run blood banks. However, it said that the poor patients will be provided blood for free if they produce an undertaking from the hospital authorities. After the directive, patients will have to purchase blood from government blood banks at Rs 1,050.

“The same directive claims that private hospitals are indulging in malpractices and charging Rs 2,000 for a unit of blood from insurance companies under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Why can’t the government take up an audit and take the guilty hospitals to task rather than putting extra financial burden on the public?” another activist said.

Gera also claimed that the directive doesn’t talk about providing relief to the poor. “Even in government hospitals, patients have to arrange for replacements if they are to collect blood for free. Why was this issue not addressed?” he said.