Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, July 9: Nine districts in Nagaland have been reported to be without licensed blood banks, which is alarming for the health sector in the state.
A recent PTI report had stated that 79 districts in India, including nine in Nagaland were without licensed blood banks, which goes against the government of India’s National Blood Policy of having at least one blood bank per district.
The Union Minister of State for Health, Ashwini Kumar Choubey had stated that the National Blood Policy was already in place and under the National Health Mission (NHM), 74 blood banks would be set up across the country including 1583 blood storage centres.
A reliable source from the state’s department of Health and Family Welfare informed Eastern Mirror that there has been a delay in acquiring licenses for the blood banks from the regional licensing authority in Guwahati. “The issuing of blood bank licenses is under the Drug and Cosmetic Act; and the licensing authority in Guwahati is taking some time to issue those licenses,” said the source.
The reason for the delay is because licenses are issued only to those blood banks with more than 2000 units of consumption in a year, the source said. This is not the case for the districts in Nagaland, except for Kohima and Dimapur, the source stated.
However, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Pangnyu Phom informed that more licensed blood banks were in the pipeline for the other district hospitals in the state; and some were even under construction in a “phase manner.”
According to an assessment by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), there were six blood banks in Nagaland in 2015, out of which four government blood banks were found to be functional. The study showed that three were supported by National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) and the fourth was a non-NACO blood bank.
The CDSCO study conducted in 2015, showed that out of the then 11 districts in the state, only three districts had blood banks. Dimapur district had one NACO-supported blood bank and one non-NACO blood bank; while Kohima and Mokokchung had one NACO-blood bank each.
According to information available on the Nagaland State Aids Control Society (NSACS) website, five districts namely Phek, Tuensang, Wokha, Mon and Zunheboto have unlicensed blood banks. It further stated that two blood transfusion vans (BTV) are attached to Kohima and Dimapur blood banks, which assist in transporting blood from voluntary camps to the blood banks. Dimapur has the only blood bank with a Blood Composition Separation Unit.
The state has three regional transfusion centres in Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung while voluntary blood donor associations have been formed in the three districts along with Zunheboto, Tuensang, Peren and Mon to promote voluntary blood donation, as per the information.
The state also has eight blood storage centres under NHM to store tested blood for places without blood banks namely – CHC Medziphema, CHC Jalukie, District Hospital Peren, District Hospital Kiphire, CHC Pungro, CHC Noklak, Tuensang, CHC Bhandari, Wokha and District Hospital Longleng.
