June 21, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 16, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 20: Blood banks of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and Children’s Hospital have failed to qualify for registration under the Islamabad Blood Transfusion Authority (IBTA) because of certain shortcomings, Dawn has learnt.

All of the 13 blood banks, both public and private, located in the capital city had applied for licence and were inspected by ITBA teams.

The teams during their visits studied the facilities available to blood donors, the state of equipment available for blood screening, blood component preparation and storage capacity, qualification and number of technical personnel, management system and the physical infrastructure of the departments.

After the inspection, the IBTA issued licences to eight blood banks for fulfilling the requirements.

The IBTA, established under the Islamabad Transfusion of Safe Blood Ordinance 2002 to regulate operations of blood banks in the capital, is also mandated to implement the national blood transfusion policy adherence to the national biosafety standards.

The ordinance makes it mandatory that all the blood banks in Islamabad must be licensed with IBTA. The main aim of the ordinance is to ensure quality assurance and provision of safe blood and its products to patients.

The hospitals whose blood banks have been awarded licences are Nescom Hospital, Federal Government Services Hospital, CDA Hospital, Shifa International Hospital, PAEC Hospital, PAF Hospital, KRL Hospital and PNS Hafeez Hospital.