With the shortage of blood in the city, an NGO has found that many private hospitals are hounding relatives to replace more units of blood than what might have been needed for the patient. The NGO has written to the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) to take action as relatives are finding it difficult to provide the blood.

“As per the national blood policy, a blood bank can’t insist on replacement of blood. It can only request a patient's relative to do so. We have been noticing that the majority of city hospitals have been doing otherwise which is unethical,” said Vikas Vira, president, Tarun Mitra Mandal, who has written to the SBTC. The NGO which mainly works on organising blood donation camps, said in a day they get 10-12 calls for blood requirement, out of which 4-5 calls are for replacement blood from hassled relatives.