more-in MADURAI While the blood bank in Government Rajaji Hospital, the second largest in the State, has often expressed concern over shortage of donors, voluntary donors opine that it could streamline its processes and sensitise employees to make it easier to donate blood. According to them, a common drawback is the indifferent attitude of the staff. N. Suresh, a young entrepreneur who occasionally donates blood, says that when he recently went to donate blood at GRH, he was told by the staff to come back after a couple of days without properly explaining the reason. “When the blood bank faces shortage, I expected it to wholeheartedly welcome the donors. However, I was astonished by its response. The staff just told me that they cannot take my blood now,” he alleges. Concern has also been raised about how the donors themselves or the attenders of patients are made to run around when they want to donate blood for patients admitted for surgery. C. Manikandan, a final year post-graduate student, says that when he went to donate blood for a patient admitted at the trauma care centre, he was asked by the staff to get a slip from the doctor treating the patient. “For a donor who has not visited the hospital before, this can be a daunting task,” he adds. Commenting on the issue, J. Prasanna Kumar, a volunteer who helps in organising donors for the GRH blood bank, says that the problem is actually in the wards where the patients are admitted and not the blood bank. “A slip should be issued from the ward mentioning the blood group and other particulars of patients so that it can be checked if the donor is of the same blood group. However, this is not done some times,” he says. Mr. Manikandan feels that the hospital must consider introducing an easy mechanism where this task of verification can be coordinated by the hospital staff instead of donors or patients’ attenders. On the allegations that donors are at times discouraged by the staff by asking them to come after a few days, M. Sintha, Head of Transfusion Medicine at GRH, in a recent interaction with the media, said that the it happened rarely when the hospital had adequate stock of a particular group of blood. “At that particular point, we may have enough supply and collecting more blood might make it useless. Hence, we advise the donors to come later,” she said. Echoing her thoughts, Mr. Prasanna Kumar, however, suggests that the hospital can introduce a helpline for donors. “The donors can therefore check with the helpline to see if they can donate blood before visiting the hospital,” he says.

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