KARACHI, Dec 30: More than 100 blood banks in the province are likely to be closed down by the health authorities during the drive against the ones not registered with the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority (SBTA).
A campaign will be launched against the dubious blood banks in the first week of the new year. All the people operating the defaulting blood banks will be facing a fine of up to Rs500,000 and imprisonment of up to three years, according to sources in the health department.
When Dawn contacted the health secretary, Prof Noshad A. Shaikh, he confirmed that a summary, including amendments to the Safe Blood Act of 1999, had already been sent to the law department. The amendments were aimed at making the measures to be taken against illegal blood banks more stringent.
After the amendments were incorporated into the Act after due vetting, the health department would be in a position to seal the illegally-operating blood banks in the province, said Prof Shaikh. Similarly, the people found running unregistered blood banks would be punished with incarceration of up to three years.
Answering a question the health secretary said that under the amended Act, people running an unregistered blood bank would be liable to pay a fine of up to Rs500,000. "The amount of fine in the Act has been enhanced from Rs300,000, which the governor thought was too small for people playing with human lives."
He added that the summary had been moved on the directives of the governor. "The campaign is also being launched with his approval in the first week of January. So, the blood banks should not expect any leniency during the drive," he remarked.
A source in the health department told this reporter that so far 187 blood banks had applied for registration with the SBTA. Forty-two of the blood banks were in the public sector and 145 were privately-run.
Sources said the SBTA was recommending the registration of 18 blood banks. Only about four government-run blood banks were already registered. Meanwhile, a drive was launched against the unregistered blood banks a few months ago as well. "However, this drive was not very successful because the Safe Blood Act had a number of shortcomings," said a source.
He said that during the campaign several blood banks, dealing in blood units of substandard quality, had been closed down. "But quite a few of these blood banks were reopened following exertion of pressure by the influential people who ran them."
Sources said some officials belonging to the SBTA came under tremendous pressure during the previous drive. "These people actually received life-threatening calls. And it is to the credit of these officials that they remained steadfast."
He said it was due to the apparent failure of the previous drive that the health authorities decided to strengthen the Act. "Let's hope that the new campaign proves to be a successful one. There is reason for optimism because the new campaign is being launched after proper homework."
