26-28th Dec, 2019, Bangalore.
BLODCON 2019 the biennial ‘National Workshop & Conference of Blood Donor Motivator Organisations’ organized by the Federation of Indian Blood Donors Organisations- FIBDO, was hosted by Sankalp India Foundation, Bangalore together with National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC), Ministry of Health And Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India. 60 representatives of blood donation organizations from India and abroad participated in the meeting.
This Conference and Workshop is of momentous significance for intensifying the voluntary blood donation movement. The event was aimed at providing a platform to our delegates to review the current activities and strategies for promoting voluntary blood donation movement. A key feature of this conference was on providing a significant thrust on education and training for the blood donation organizations to enhance their contribution to the quality of blood donation camps. Dr Sundar Priyavan, Dr Girish C J, Dr Vijay Kumawat, Dr Ashish Dhoot, Dr Sumithra R and Dr Sandeepan Ghosh took the responsibility for the educational sessions. Their participation contributed not only to improving the readiness of the organisations to play an active role in enhancing quality of blood drives but also paved the way forward for closer and more meaningful organiser and blood bank cooperation.
The conference saw a leap forward on the donor side of National Haemovigilance Program of India with the participation of Dr.(Mrs) Reba Chhabra, the Director In-charge of the National Institute of Biologicals, Noida and Dr. Akanksha Bisht the in-charge of the National Haemovigilance Program of India. They highlighted how organisers should now begin to demand that the complications seen during the blood donation drives be reported to the NIB and in-fact consider this as one of the key quality parameters.
Dr Swati Kulkarni from the National Institute of Immunohaematology Mumbai also attended the program about the newly introduced detection of rare blood types and the activities/programs at NIIH which are of relevance to blood donors. With several key organisations who are involved in the management of rare blood types in India, interaction with her has opened the doors for further collaboration.
A significant ongoing challenge continues to be the wide gaps between policy and ground reality. The fact that there is fragmentation at the Government level when it comes to matters relating to blood transfusion services has ensured that the Nation’s Blood Policy has no single owner and implementer. The subject has come up for debate on various forums time and again and there have been discussions about addressing the concerns of the organisations actively working to ensure timely supply of voluntarily donated blood to the needy. Nevertheless, the progress continues to be very slow and consequently we are all set to miss the mission 2020 deadline for achieving 100% voluntary blood donation. The meeting deliberated on this issue and finally decided to draw the attention of the Government at the highest level to this matter.
During the meeting, a decision was also taken to study the non-compliance in blood donation camps across the country. Sankalp has been entrusted with the responsibility for drafting and circulating the study proposal which is likely to be an eye opener on the quality and variability in blood drives across the nation.
A blood donation drive was organised by Narayana Health at the conference venue with the specific purpose of demonstrating the quality processes in action to the participants. A soulful and much appreciated performance by The Udupa Foundation, a registered charitable trust with the aim of promoting music, performing arts and culture contrasted well with the high intensity discussion and sessions.