Ranchi: The state health department is mulling to hire a specialised agency for conducting blood donation camps across Jharkhand. The move is a part of the department’s plans to ensure seamless supply of blood units to the state’s blood banks, officials said.The department is also working out plans to expand tele-ICU services to all 24 districts. Currently, tele-ICU are run in a few select places. On Tuesday, additional chief secretary of the health department Ajoy Kumar Singh held separate meetings to fine-tune the modalities.“The hired agency will organise blood donation camps regularly across the state, assist in blood bank operations, and streamline the blood collection process,” said Singh. Currently, state needs between 1.5 to 2 lakh units of blood every year. However, blood banks are often starved of the blood units, putting patients at risk.“Since the system of replacement blood has been discontinued, the challenge of blood collection has increased, and currently it is possible only through voluntary donation and camps,” he said, adding that they will also consider purchasing special vehicle for blood collection for each district.To strengthen transparency and monitoring, Singh also directed that photographs of donors be taken during blood collection and linked with barcodes. Additionally, directives were given to evolve a system to upload blood testing results to a digital platform by devising a dedicated portal.About tele-ICU, officials said that currently it is operational in five districts — Gumla, Simdega, Chatra and Ranchi Sadar. He directed officials to start similar services at all remaining district officials so that patients can get expert assistance without having the need to come to Ranchi. “Additional appointments will also be made if needed to tackle manpower shortage,” he said.
