Hyderabad: Around 50 days ago the Drug Control Administration announced that it had found 109 blood banks violating rules across the state. But the vigour is missing when it comes to pursuing action against the blood banks.
The DCA is still awaiting replies to show cause notices sent to blood banks: It had said on July 8 that notices would be issued in four days and the blood banks would have to respond and rectify the violations.
The DCA said if it was not satisfied with the actions taken by the blood banks, their licence would be suspended and they would be shut down.
A senior DCA official said, “We got replies to show cause notices from about 50 per cent of the violating blood banks. We will send them to the drug inspectors who will again conduct a check and see if required steps have been taken.”
No deadline has been set for this task. According to the official, most blood banks do not have a thermograph, which helps in maintaining the storage refrigerators at the right temperature.
The DCA also found that washers were missing in blood testing units. Washers help in cleaning the units once tests for diseases like AIDS are conducted.
Technicians are now forced to clean the equipment manually. Other issues were over pricing, lack of maintenance of records, low technical manpower, poor equipment maintenance and inadequate area.
It is to be seen what action is taken against 22 pharmaceutical companies to whom show cause notices were issued after violations were detected as part of checking last month, between July 26 and 30.
The present status is the same as in the case of blood banks. The Drug Control Administration is awaiting replies to show cause notices.
