LAHORE, Nov 2: The Punjab government has made it mandatory for all public hospitals to arrange blood for patients ‘on their own’ instead of sending them to private (blood) banks for the purpose.

The decision has been taken following the deaths of some patients due to transfusion of blood brought from the private facilities. “To arrange blood for its patients will now be the responsibility of each public hospital and for that they will have to strengthen their own blood bank system,” Punjab Health Secretary Anwaar Ahmad Khan told Dawn.

He said instructions in this regard had been issued to them (hospitals) and in case of violation, the administrations would be held responsible and penalised accordingly.

“Since it is difficult to ensure the quality of blood and its screening by the private blood banks, the patients cannot be left at the mercy of such facilities,” he maintained.

No official statistics are available with the federal or provincial health departments regarding the number of private blood banks in Punjab. It is learnt that their number in the province is in hundreds and most of them are owned by doctors and other staff working in the public health facilities.

“The doctors often recommend their patients to get blood from the private blood banks in which either they have share or they own it,” a senior physician told this reporter. He further said almost all the private blood banks in the province were not registered with the health department, something that raises doubts about their credibility.

He alleged that some private blood banks were indulged in highly unethical practice of mixing ‘iron polymaltose’ to increase the quantity of blood they buy.

Allama Iqbal Medical College Lahore Principal Prof Dr Javed Akram in his findings on the death of a young patient at the Services Hospital during transfusion of ‘stale’ blood bought from a private blood bank, has strongly recommended to the chief minister that the government should close down all private blood banks in the province immediately. Simultaneously, it should strengthen the blood banks under its control by improving liaison with the public hospitals, he said.

“It is unethical to ask the relatives of a patient to arrange blood,” he said and added that in case of any ‘disputed’ death autopsy must be carried out within 24 hour of expiry to fix the responsibility.

Prof Akram also recommended that the health department must develop a reporting and monitoring system in the health facilities to check such irregularities.