VIRUDHUNAGAR: The Government Hospital in Srivilliputhur attends to around 180 deliveries every month. However, pregnant women who are in need of blood transfusion, suffer as the hospital does not have a functioning blood bank. This is despite the fact that civil work on the blood bank at the hospital was completed a year back.
In 2021, Rs 25 lakh was sanctioned under the National Health Mission in Tamil Nadu to establish a blood bank at the hospital. The facility remained defunct as there was no trained doctor and did not get the licence, a senior health department official said.
However, the official claimed that the blood bank would be opened in a month as they have hired a trained doctor and reapplied for the licence. “We have rectified the issue, and the officials concerned were satisfied during a recent re-inspection. We are likely to receive the licence by this month,” the official added.
Located a few metres away from the bus depot, the hospital caters to lakhs of people in and around the region. According to sources, the hospital also attends to numerous road traffic injury cases regularly. In most such cases, the patients might need to undergo blood transfusion. However, due to the absence of a blood bank, many of the patients’ family members have to travel to the government hospital in Rajapalayam or Sivakasi, located several kilometres away, to arrange blood.
Speaking to TNIE, S Jayaram (52), whose anaemic daughter had recently delivered a baby at the hospital, said, “As my daughter had a low hemoglobin level of around 8 g/dl, she was recommended to undergo blood transfusion twice during the pregnancy check-ups. As the hospital lacked a blood bank, we were directed to the government hospital in Rajapalayam, where the authorities agreed to provide the required blood after I arranged replacement blood via a donor. The entire process took three days.”
It is the same for another 24-year-old pregnant woman, who is currently in her sixth month and has very low hemoglobin level (6 gm/dl). “When I approached the doctors at Srivilliputhur GH, they told me that I required two units of blood and asked me to obtain it from the GH in Rajapalayam. However, as B-ve blood was not available at Rajapalayam GH as well, I was asked to arrange a donor,” she said.
“Though there are thousands of volunteers in Srivilliputhur who regularly donate blood, locals and patients continue to struggle due to the absence of the blood bank,” said K Mohammad Jameel Raja (29), a Srivilliputhur resident who has been donating blood for seven years.
The health official added that instances of donors being sent to other hospitals for blood transfusion rarely occur, that too, only in cases of patients with rare blood groups.