Blood storage centre can’t open because it’s six inches short

NAGPUR: A much needed blood storage centre is not being opened in Wadsa taluka in Naxal affected Gadchiroli district because dimensions of the room it is housed in are about six inches short. According to state public health department the state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had held up approval to the centre for the last one year for this shortcoming. However, FDA denied the charge saying that shortage of space was not the only reason to keep it non-operational.They said the centre did not even have basic qualified staff.
A total of 22 blood storage centres have been set up in Nagpur division for improving blood availability in rural areas from where patients earlier had to earlier travel to urban areas. Two years ago, state government sanctioned two additional centres at Wadsa and Ashti in Gadchiroli. At Wadsa, the rural hospital was chosen to house the storage center. The one at Wadsa was inspected by FDA in August 2015 but approval is still stuck because it does not comply with FDA norms.
One norm says a minimum of 10x10 feet room should be made available to operate a storage centre. However, the room made for the purpose at rural hospital measures is 9’6” each side. FDA has asked the health department to comply with norm.
FDA also says the staffers that health department was trying to deploy at the centre were not qualified. “The technicians department wanted to appoint did not even have a Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology (DMLT). How can a person not qualified to match blood be hired? We don’t want to play with patient’s health,” said FDA joint commissioner Mohan Kekatpure.
An FDA official told TOI that two months after the FDA inspection on August 19, 2015, the rural hospital at Wadsa wrote to the district civil surgeon of Gadchiroli about shortcomings. Apparently, the civil surgeon and other health department officials have not been able to address the issue of qualified staff. An official from the health department told TOI the department would be breaking the wall between the storage centre and adjoining room to have bigger space. But they failed to respond to query about not having qualified staff.
Similarly another centre at Ashti sanctioned two years ago has been stuck for want of proper civil work pointed out by FDA. FDA’s Kekatpure claimed the health department has not even finalized location for the centre. They had to propose three locations but until now no step had been taken by the health department, he said.