CHENNAI: Health Department is mulling over sending certificate of appreciation for voluntary blood donors for government hospitals through e-mail as part of making functioning of its 89 blood banks across the State fully online. Now the blood banks, functioning under Tamil Nadu State Blood Transfusion Council of Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS), gives certificates manually.
A health department official told Express “The department is planning to make total functioning of the blood banks online by interlinking all 89 blood banks. The e-certificates plan will be in line with the bar coding on blood bags system that has been introduced in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on a pilot basis to prevent HIV and other infectious diseases transmitted through blood.
“Once this inter-linking of blood banks is done, issuing e-certificates to voluntary blood donors will be implemented. TANSACS has asked for funds with the State Government. Once, the funds are sanctioned, implementation will begin,” the official said. “Voluntary blood donors will have to provide their e-mail id during the donation. TANSACS will then send -mail to the donors.”
Welcoming the move, Srivatsa Vema,who organises regular blood camps for government blood banks, said, “Mostly regular voluntary blood donors will not be keen on taking certificate of appreciation, but some college students prefer certificates. This is a good move.”