Koderma: The only govt blood bank in Koderma district is operating as a storage centre and can’t collect units directly from donors since its licence was revoked on Nov 9, 2025, leading to a severe shortage for needy patients.Dr Ranjeet Kumar, deputy superintendent of Koderma Sadar Hospital, said the blood bank’s licence was revoked after it was shifted to a new building on the premises. As per govt norms, a fresh application needs to be filed. He said the application has been submitted to state govt and services are expected to become normal soon.Since the unit’s licence was cancelled, the amount of blood available for patients has dropped by half. While the facility used to provide an average of 500 units of blood every month, it has only managed to give out 767 units since Nov 9 last year. On Monday, the centre had 7 units of blood.For 52 local thalassaemia patients who require regular blood transfusions every month, it has become a constant struggle to arrange units. Recently, five thalassaemia patients who came for blood, only one received a unit.The situation is also difficult at the hospital’s dialysis centre, which receives around 12-15 patients every day. When the centre runs out of specific blood groups, patients and their families are forced to arrange it themselves. A patient, Naheshwar Sharma, recently had to find O-positive blood on his own because the centre had none left.The only source of blood now is the Sheikh Bhikhari Medical College and Hospital in Hazaribag, about 60 km away. For accident victims or women in labour, families must travel for hours to bring back blood needed for surgery.Dr Kumar said the hospital management is doing everything possible to help those in most urgent need. The hospital still organises donation camps, from where more than 815 units have been collected since Nov 9, 2025. The units are sent to Hazaribag for processing and then brought back.
