In short supply: GRH authorities say they face shortage of blood most of the time and have appealed for more people to donate blood. | Photo Credit: G_Moorthy more-in Government Rajaji Hospital has recommended the termination of a housekeeping employee and a counsellor for allegedly colluding with a media person to shoot a video to falsely project as if blood received from donors was wasted at the hospital. Speaking to the media here on Thursday, D. Maruthupandian, Dean, said while the housekeeping staff was engaged by the agency Padmavathi Hospitality and Facilities Management Services, contracted by the hospital for housekeeping, the counsellor was appointed by Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society at the blood bank in the GRH. In the video, the housekeeping worker was seen draining blood-like material in a toilet. Clarifying that what was seen in the video was not exactly blood, M. Sintha, Head of Transfusion Medicine, said it was in fact ‘biomedical waste.’ “It was blood rejected by a recipient – a 60-year-old cervical cancer patient – due to ‘transfusion reaction,’ which means the patient developed an allergy during transfusion. This happens rarely,” she said, adding the patient was given another unit of blood, which her body accepted. Stating that the rejected blood was returned to the bank, Dr. Sintha said it was treated by adding sodium hydrochloride solution as per procedure. “It is this treated ‘biomedical waste’ that is seen in the video. It will remain red. As per process, we drain it in the sinks in sterilisation room. The two persons instead drained it on the floor of toilet to show as if blood was being wasted,” she added. She said only 136 units of the 25,000 units of blood collected last year had to be rejected at the GRH due to various reasons, including the collected blood testing positive for certain diseases. “This is well within the permissible limits prescribed by National AIDS Control Organisation. It allows 5 %. Ours is less than 0.6 %,” she said. Highlighting that the GRH blood bank faced shortage of blood most of the time, A. Rathinavel, Head of Cardio-Thorasic Surgery and Advisor to the Blood Donors Club at the hospital, said it was ridiculous to think that the hospital would waste blood by draining it in the toilet. “Our blood bank, which is the second largest in the State, has a capacity to store 3,000 units. Only around one-third of the capacity is utilised on an average,” he added. Arguing that the GRH catered to people from economically-backward sections, he appealed for blood donation by more people.

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