The rising price of blood in the city is threatening the condition patients who are urgently in need of this life saving donation.
Official sources cite that the cost of blood which is stored in blood banks in the city has gone up by Rs 50 per bag since April.
By September, however, the cost of blood bags is likely to shoot up to Rs 900 from the current Rs 600.
According to officials with the Indian Medical Association Blood Bank, they have been forced to increase the price of blood and its components owing to the escalating prices of raw materials, including blood bags.
IMA vice-president Dr Sunil K Mathai said, “It is impossible to purchase blood bags for cheap rates any more. Especially now that there is a huge demand for blood components, there is no other option but to store these components in the highly-priced triple and quadruple bags.This is one of the reasons why we have increased the price tag for blood distribution.” Also the increased tariff rates is yet another reason, he says.
“Blood needs to be stored at certain temperatures.All this requires electricity. he power hike is also a reason for hiked price,” Mathai said.
The introduction of Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) for qualitative testing of all its blood samples is the main reason as to why the price of blood will nearly double by September.
“Providing cheap blood is not difficult. But it is very risky for patients. Keeping quality as our priority we are introducing the NAT system from September and this is why the price of blood may increase by Rs 300 or Rs 400.
In western countries, such a system costs nearly Rs 2,500. We are doing our best to keep the prices low so that it doesn’t affect the public much,” Mathai said. According to Dr Gangadharan of IMA, the association has approached many government agencies for assistance but have not received much help so far.
“Four years ago, the Kerala State Aids Control Society (KSACS) used to provide us an annual grant of Rs 3 lakh. But now, it has also ceased,” he said.Keeping the needs of the people in mind, the IMA has appraoched NATCO to assist them so that IMA can regulate rates for the NAT system.“We are in constant contact with the officials. If they are willing to assist us, hopefully we could bring down the rates.” District Medical Officer Junaid Rahman said that such a price hike will affect patients in a bad way.“However, since our hospital is getting the blood from the IMA at a subsidised rate, it will not affect our patients much. But in other hospitals which have to pay a higher price, the situation might get difficult,” he said.
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