Chennai: Being the only government hospital in Chennai to be fully accredited under the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH), the Tambaram government hospital is proud of its blood bank.
Though small, the blood bank tends to get a sufficient number of voluntary donors each year, enabling it to send blood to other government and private hospitals when in excess.
The bank has been seeing a rise in the amount of blood donations with 2014 having seen 797 units of blood donated as against 2013’s 503. In 2016, 226 units of blood were collected (until March) from camps alone.
“Every month, the hospital requires an average of 70 to 80 units of blood. However, as a result of the number of blood donation camps that we hold – as was the case in March due to the Chief Minister’s birthday celebrations – we were able to collect a lot of blood,” said Dr Premila, medical officer in charge of blood bank, Tambaram government hospital.
Though the hospital saw a rise in the number of donations this year, a dry period due to the approaching vacations is certain. “There will be no camps during vacations. Therefore, for donations, we will have to depend on other organisations like welfare associations and companies,” she said.
“We manage to conduct at least two blood donation camps each month,” said Dr M. Inbavalli, chief medical officer at the hospital.
