BENGALURU: The state government has tied up with city-based firm iRelief and launched an app by the same name that will give information about availability of blood in blood banks.
There are 200 government and private blood banks, and 198 government and private blood storage centres in Karnataka. Information about the availability of blood in 50 per cent of both private and government blood banks has been published on http://blood.kar.nic.in. Besides, the health department’s Jeevasanjeevani app was also shared with iRelief for the convenience of patients.
The app allows you to demand a specific group of blood, which will be delivered at your location. The moment an order is placed, voluntary donors are alerted. The identity and privacy of the donors are guarded.
Principal Secretary to the Health Department Shalini Rajneesh said, “iRelief has fixed a cost of `30 for connecting and confirming supply of blood to the patient in the respective hospitals. The app, however, can be downloaded for free.” iRelief claims this is the first-of-its-kind app in the country. Indian Red Cross Society also has a similar app. It connects the donor to the blood bank but does not show the availability of blood units to others, she added.
iRelief COO Raghavendra Prasad M N said, “We have signed MoUs with seven out of 160 private blood banks in the state so far. Another 21 MoUs are in the process of being signed. We will cover them in the next three months. Based on your GPS location, this app shows where the nearest blood bank with the available stock is.”
The helpdesk number is 784 784 00 00.
The 2016 CAG report observed that the major reason for discarding blood units was because the blood expired. With this app, information will now be available on the availability of blood in different centres and wastage is likely to be reduced.