PANJIM: The blood bank at the Goa Medical College (GMC) may be Goa’s only licenced blood bank to prepare component packs but with short staff, the department is struggling and still succeeding in providing blood to not just north but south Goa too.
The bank may appear deserted all day long with only a handful of people coming in to donate blood but the demand is huge. Five years ago, the bank supplied around 50 bottles of blood, including platelets, a day. Today this figure has gone up to more than 75.
While the demand has gone up, the staff working behind the scenes has faced a major letdown in some cases leading to a shortage of blood. The department that had once had three fulltime technicians testing and dispensing blood and its components, is now faced with a shortage as two of them near retirement.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a doctor said that though the department had asked for replacements, the hospital had failed to provide any. “Two of the technicians were on leave and replacements had to be brought in,” said the doctor, adding that getting the replacements was a difficult task.
Adding pressure to the already burdened department are requests from government hospitals not only from the North but the South as well. “There is a blood bank in Hospicio (Margao) but most times there isn’t enough to cater to all patients. They are then asked to get blood from the GMC therefore creating problems for the department,” said the doctor.
In addition, super specialty hospitals that perform important surgeries, including cardiac and heart-related ones, usually do not have a blood bank and depend on the GMC’s blood unit.
The problem months for the department usually crop up from between April and June. The reason is that since most of the donors are among the youth, these months are exam months where students focus more on studying rather than other activities. December to March is usually the period where the most blood is collected mainly through blood donation camps as well as individual donations.
