Chandka Medical College Hospital deprived of key Blood Bank
May 06, 2012
To improve blood transfusion services in Pakistan, Cabinet Division Government of Pakistan had approved implementation of a five-year project –National Blood Transfusion Program – from September 2010 to August 2014.
The project is co-financed by the Federal Republic of Germany and will support reorganization of blood transfusion system, replacement of blood collection system with non-remunerated voluntary blood donors, construction and equipping a network of 13 Regional Blood Centers and provision of equipment to 78 hospital-based Blood Banks.
The 13 Regional Blood Bank Centres already established under the above program include slamabad, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan, Gilgit-
Baltistan, Karachi, Jamshoro, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Bahawalpur, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta and Muzafarabad.
Larkana was included in the original plan but due to unknown reasons it was shifted to Sukkur depriving the patients of more than eight districts of upper Sindh.
The implementation of German financial assistance component is supported by a consortium composed of two German companies, EPOS Health Management and GOPA Consultants and a Malaysian consulting company Mediconsult, which is engaged by the Project Executing Agency.
Recently 40-bed Accident & Emergency Centre has started working where injured and other emergency patients are treated that arrived here even from lower part of Punjab and some of parts of Balochistan who need blood on emergency basis to save their precious lives.
Assistant Professor of Chandka Medical College (CMC), Benazir Bhutto Medical University and senior Pathologist of CMC Hospital, Dr. Ghulam Shabir Shaikh, told PPI that it is unjust to deprive the patients of CMCH of these modern facilities and availability of a well-equipped regional blood bank.
He said that had this Regional Blood Bank been established in Larkana the patients of more than eight districts of upper Sindh including Sukkur would have benefited apart from some parts of Baluchistan
and lower part of Punjab as these patients do arrive in Larkana to get treatment as full-fledged facility of Blood Bank is not available here in government sector to deal with emergencies and handle the burden of hospital operations being conducted daily in various surgical departments of CMCH and Shaikh Zayyed Hospital for Women where daily blood requirement is a common factor.
Dr Shaikh said that at the very outset this Regional Blood Bank was approved in 1350-bed CMCH Larkana and then it was suddenly shifted to 250-bed Mahar Medical College Hospital (MMCH) Sukkur. (PPI)
