Rajahmundry: The authorities are making all efforts to ensure supply of requisite quantity of blood of various blood groups to tackle medical emergency cases during Godavari Pushkaralu. The drugs control administration authorities have come up with an initiative by asking the pharmacists to donate blood voluntarily just a few days before the commencement of the fete in order to keep adequate stocks of blood in case of emergency.
In East Godavari alone, there are 3,000 pharmacists and if they along with their friends volunteer to donate blood, it will enhance the stocks of blood available in the district.
As the National Highway-16 passes through both the Godavari districts for hundreds of kilometres, the blood banks are being flooded with requests for supply of blood from both the government and private hospitals to save the lives of accident victims.
On the other hand, the blood bank in the government hospital in Rajahmundry which supplies about 120 units of blood every month is poorly equipped to preserve blood more than the present capacity due to inadequate storage facilities.
The hospital authorities said that though the refrigerators were under warranty period, technicians from the concerned firms were not attending to the repair work despite repeated reminders. They ruled out purchase of new refrigerators for want of funds.
The DCA authorities are confident of collecting more than 500 units of blood easily and also advised the pharmacists to collect the details of donors like their names, addresses and mobile phone numbers in order to contact them and get the blood whenever there is a need.
Drugs Control Administration assistant director B. Suresh Babu said, “As we intend to serve the visiting devotees, we will donate blood and supply to the needy persons.”
In case of excess collection of blood, it can be separated into various components like plasma, platelets and red blood cells which can be preserved for six months for later use, the assistant director said.
