10 November 2004	Wednesday	26 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Nov 9: Delay in the appointment of special magistrates and prosecution lawyers is hampering the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority efforts to take action against blood banks failing to meet registration criterion.

Dr Farhana Memon, Program Manager and Secretary, SBTA, talking to APP on Monday said the authority, which had sealed some eight illegal blood banks in Karachi only, during the last few months, was unable to get FIRs registered and expedite cases against the banks due to procedural deficiencies.

The sealed blood banks were found to be providing either inadequately screened or absolutely unscreened blood to patients, besides lacking essential facilities to maintain quality of blood or its components.

Mentioning that a meeting to address the issue was scheduled to be held on Nov 23 under Sindh chief secretary, she hoped the matter would be settled.

She said with the appointment of special magistrates, the SBTA would be in a position to get expedited legal proceedings following registration of the FIRs against the faulty blood banks.

Reminding that the SBTA was not authorized to take legal action against the blood banks providing substandard services, Dr Farhana said with the necessary provision for prosecution lawyers, the set penalty of Rs500,000 could also be immediately imposed against faulty blood banks, ultimately compelling all blood banks to ensure quality of blood.

Responding to a query, she reiterated that coordinated efforts on part of law and home departments, besides local governments, were required to ensure that the SBTA directives pertaining to closure of substandard banks were actually implemented.

Highlighting the SBTA's goals, she underscored the need for financial support to establish organized blood transfusion services in the public sector.

Otherwise, she said, the SBTA's monitoring process was also being hampered, as while mushroom growth of blood banks had been contained through the ban imposed on any further establishment of such outlets, yet those already operating also needed to be monitored.

To a question, she said some 450 blood banks were operating across the province, while only 160 had applied for registration with the SBTA, 14 of which had been registered while notice for closure had been issued to 49, and eight had been actually sealed.

"Idea is to cut down the existent number of blood banks functioning across the province to some 200," she said, mentioning that most problems were being experienced in the cities where teaching hospitals were located - Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkhur, Nawabshah and Larkana.

According to Dr Memon, measures are also being taken to curtail the trend of commercialization of blood banks and licenses have not been issued to many banks, including those associated with certain prestigious institutions, for want of details on their part regarding recurring expenditure and the bills charged from the public.

It was necessary that a cost limit was fixed for procuring blood and its component, which needed not only to be safe but also affordable for the masses, she elaborated.

With regard to check irrational blood transfusions, across the board screening of blood donations and provision of safe blood, Dr Memon reiterated that the Safe Blood Transfusion Act could not be effectively implemented lest strong public and private partnership was developed with adequate provision for education of both masses and healthcare providers.

With a view to ensure screening in the public sector blood banks, she said the Sindh Safe Blood Transfusion Programme was providing consumable kits for Hepatitis B, C and HIV on regular basis to blood banks, and they submit their monthly reports regularly to the SBTA.

It was mentioned that under the Safe Blood Transfusion criteria adopted across the country, every donated blood bag was to be necessarily screened for Malaria, Syphilis, Hepatitis B and C and HIV.

According to her, there happened to be more than 300 blood banks in Karachi.-APP