In a move to introduce transparency in availability and disbursement of blood units, all blood banks in India have been asked to update realtime stock status in public domain.
Director-General of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), N.S. Kang, has written to all 2,711 licensed blood banks in India, asking them to put data on the National Health Portal (NHP) website.
Advantages
The NHP site gives real- time data about blood and blood components at the State and the district level. As the data is updated every 48 hours, families looking for blood can use the web-enabled system, taking away the need to tapping into personal sources, social media platforms etc for blood.
The e-Blood bank will enable electronic monitoring of blood collection, testing, storage and final use and even disposal. The app also will maintain a database of regular donors, in case of requirement.
Further, with all the information online and readily available, the onus of procuring safe blood shifts from the individual to blood banks and will lead to even distribution and weed out professional donors and touts etc, the official added.
Background
The project was launched earlier this month after a pilot in Delhi and Mizoram during which the NACO found nearly 100 per cent reporting from blood banks in both States. According to the NACO data, out of the 2,760 blood banks in India, 2,711 are already on a digital platform.
Current Affairs: 11th January, 2016 Current Affairs Round up December, 2015.
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