Mumbai: Six BMC-run hospitals to have component blood banks in city

After extending the submission deadline four times since the tenders for operating a blood bank at BMCrun peripheral hospitals secondary healthcare facilities located in the suburbs of a city were floated the civic body now finally has nine bidders who have appliedWhile earlier it was said that these hospitals will just have blood banks officials have now confirmed that these will be component blood banksThe tender process is now at the scrutinisation stage where the quotations of all nine bidders are under investigation As per the tender guidelines the bidder must invest in infrastructure equipment staff regulatory permissions and 24x7 operations Strict quality licensing and reporting requirements will be applicable as per FDA norms said the BMC adding that the contract term will be 10 years extendable to 30 years based on performanceDr Atul Kulkarni runs the Jankalyan blood bank in Pune PicBy Special ArrangementWhat is component blood bankldquoThere are various constituents in whole blood such as plasma red blood cells and platelets When these are separated from the whole blood and stored separately itrsquos called a component bankrdquo explained Dr Atul Kulkarni who runs the Jankalyan Blood Bank in Pune He stated that a normal blood bank only collects whole blood conducts various bloodrelated tests and stores the blood samplesWhy is it necessaryExplaining how having more component blood banks instead of whole blood banks is the need of the hour Dr Kulkarni told midday ldquoItrsquos an era of blood components Usually a patient needs a specific component of the blood and seldom requires whole blood For instance a person suffering from anaemia whose haemoglobin has dropped needs only red blood cells and not whole blood Thus if the components are separated from that particular blood sample then the red blood cells can be used for this patient while the plasma can be used for other patients Like someone who has burns can be given plasma or someone suffering from dengue or is undergoing cancer treatment can be given the platelets from the same blood samplerdquoHe added ldquoThe patient will not need to unnecessarily take in nonrequired components of blood For example if the patient is old and has a weak heart and needs platelets but instead is given whole blood then more quantity of plasma will enter her body leading to more pressure on her heart which may further lead to heartrelated complications Thus the rational approach is to only give required components instead of whole bloodrdquo Hospitals that will have component blood banks in the city are Bharatratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar General Hospital Kandivli area allotted ndash 226498 sq m Seth Vadilal Chhatrabhuj Gandhi and Monji Amidas Vora General Hospital Ghatkopar area allotted ndash 248887 sq m Khan Bahadur Bhabha General Hospital Kurla area allotted ndash 16258 sq m Khurshedjee Behramjee Bhabha General Hospital Bandra area allotted ndash 196879 sq m Shri Harilal Bhagwati Hospital Borivli area allotted ndash 31055 sq m Smt MT Agarwal Municipal General Hospital Mulund area allotted ndash 36727 sq m