Come September 13, and the volunteers of Sankalp like to look back in time. In this very month in 2006, the dreams of a few young people was somehow looking much more realistic, much more ahieveable. All the hard work that went into taking up an emergency blood request and resolving it looked meaningful and purposeful. In the September of 2006, Disha was born.
CTC Disha is a blood search helpline in Karnataka. Inaugurated by the then Governor of Karnataka, Mr Chaturvedi, Disha, when born was a Bangalore blood helpline. It had networked together most of the quality concious and safe blood banks of Bangalore city. Suddenly blood search looked a lot comforting and easy to the people in need. On the dial of the helpline number, people were being guided to the nearest place where safe blood is available. The caller would get this information on furnishing the right details about the patient, the blood requirement etc. The road to set this network up was tough, but once done it was a firm foundation for an integrated approach towards networking blood banks for the right reasons. Today, as Disha turns 4, it is a matter of pride and immense joy for volunteers. It covers the entire state of Karnataka networking more than 50 of the good blood banks in the state.
CTC Disha is a unique blood helpline. CTC (Comprehensive Trauma Consortium) has provided infrastructure and a lot of other utilities to run this helpline. A call center has been set up with the help of CTC. The executives working at these call centers call each of these blood banks daily and get an update of their current stock positions. This process of reaching out to the right blood banks, discussing with them about the need and the benefit of such a ccommon helpline and then integrating them into the helpline is the responsibility of Sankalp. So it is a one shot destination for blood search. However, thats not it. If blood of that particular group is not available at any of the standard blood banks that are networked to the helpline, the call is directly forwarded to the Emergency Wing of Sankalp. This Emergency Wing of Sankalp makes sure that the patient recieves timely help.
Right from the intial days, Quality Of Service is something that the organisation is serious about. Any blood request that comes to the helpline, be it from the most influential of people or from the most unknown unheard of human being, the service treats them all equally and provides a common, good service. Publicising the helpline, resolving technical problems at the call center, managing blood bank interactions are the prime areas of focus for Sankalp volunteers when we look into maintaining the high degree of QoS. A large number of posters, stickers etc are put up at relevant hospitals, access points giving people access to the right information. In 2006, Sankalp volunteers had also taken up a 40km long walk across Bangalore ("The Walk For Life") to spread the message about the helpline.
Today as Disha turns 4, the volunteers of Sankalp know that persistence, patience is the key towards better blood banking practices in the state. They know that the helpline is the backbone of the blood search network built up all over the state and they know that the task of seeing Disha through to years and decades and centuries of top class performace and service lies on their shoulders!
For now we will just say HAPPY BIRTHDAY DISHA and give out this message to all of you. LOOKING FOR BLOOD? CALL 9480044444