Emergency wing was the first team of SIF which started with the pledge to do whatever it takes to ensure no one suffers due to shortage of blood. Today the team takes up blood requests which are difficult to be handled by the existing blood stocks in blood banks or by simply getting a few donation done. The team takes up blood requests for extremely rare blood group, when there is a requirement of unusual blood products, when there is a danger to the life of the person because of lack of availability of blood and other corner cases of blood banking. The team prepares and trains itself to handle the difficult situations as and when they come.
24 hours of the day and 365 days of the year at least 1 Sankalp volunteer who had adequate training and experience at emergency management is available to assist the patients in need.
HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2013-14
FOCUS ON REAL EMERGENCIES
In coordination with Disha, the Emergency Team was able to ensure that only the most critical blood requests are reported. The Disha response team was equipped enough to regular blood requests even if there was no stock in blood banks.
HIGHLY EXPERIENCED VOLUNTEERS
The team composed of volunteers who had experience running into several years at management of emergency blood requests. This enabled very effective management of the requests.
STRONG RELATIONSHIP WITH BLOOD BANKS AND DONORS ACROSS COUNTRY
The team established strong relationship of trust and cooperation with blood banks and donors who were likely to be needed in managing emergency requirements across the nation. This enabled smooth handling of situations when they arose.
BOMBAYBLOODGROUP.ORG
The team further strengthened the first ever nationwide network of Bombay blood group donors. The use of the network led to better management of Bombay blood group requests and optimal utilisation of rare blood groups found in blood banks converting the seemingly impossible to manage situations a normal routine.
SYNERGISING RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS
Instead of duplicating the efforts, the team set up synergetic relationships with other organisations which actively work for blood donation. The team encouraged the use of their strengths, offered the strengths of the team and worked upon filling the gaps in the whole system.
EVENTS AND NEWS REPORTS
The following is the list of significant events and news reports related to the team.
- 7th July 2013: SIF organised the 3rd Bombay Blood Group donors meet.
- 14th September 2013: SIF was invited to present a talk on: "Innovations in Transfusion Medicine: Networking for Bombay Blood Group-An Indian(Sankalp) experience" at the 2nd National Conference of ISTM-TRANSMEDCON 2013, ISTM Bangalore
- 14th June 2013: The Times of India - "Youngsters serve through platelet donation" - a write-up about Single donor platelets(SDP) donation
- 1st August 2013: Vijay Karnataka - An article centered around Bombay Blood Group.
- 2nd August 2013: Deccan Chronicle - "Fighting dengue: Blood banks struggle to store platelets" - another write-up about SDP shortage
- 25th August 2013: Dainik Bhaskar - write-up about Bombay blood group.
THE WAY AHEAD
FOCUS ON BOMBAYBLOODGROUP.ORG
The focussed effort for rational utilisation, awareness, better information sharing about donors, collection and availability of Bombay blood group has given excellent results with the blood banks in urban as well as deep pockets of the state beginning to contribute towards better management of rare blood groups. Emergency Team plans to scale this program up to cover the entire nation in the time to come. Should this happen, the country will have a strong rare blood group program. The team also seeks to convert what is today a difficult to manage blood request into a routine blood request by facilitating the preparation of blood banks to attend to such requirements. The team seeks to enable swift adoption of modern rational transfusion practices and technologies. There are plans to organise CMEs, explore and publish conservative strategies for blood utilisation in India scenario and educate the blood banking professionals from grass root upwards to be able to contribute towards effective management.
EMERGENCY DONATIONS IMPLY INEFFICIENT BLOOD BANKING
We are proud of the fact that more and more blood requests today are getting managed without asking the donor to rush to the blood banks in emergency. It should be clearly acknowledged by the blood banking community that rushing donors to save the patient during an emergency situation is nothing to celebrate. It indicates the failure of blood banking as a whole to make unit of safe blood available to the patients off the shelf. With the exception of extremely rare blood groups there should be no need to get emergency donations at all. Sankalp Emergency Team works in tandem with the Rakta Kranti Team to plan such that more blood is available from voluntary blood donation camps and fewer people need to be taken to donate during emergencies.
IRRATIONAL DEMAND FOR BLOOD COMPONENTS
Sankalp's Emergency Team also came face to face with irrational demand for blood components - especially platelets. When dengue cases are on the rise, the organisation has come blood requests which don't appear to be aligning with the best interest of the patient. Demand for SDP is also getting influenced because of panic amoung the clinicians and financial reasons. The organisation has been highlighting the events and cases which show how rampant is the mismanagement of blood. It's high time that strong efforts are made to make sure that proper guidelines are used while ordering blood components. Judicious and rational blood transfusions is the need of the day.
REPLACEMENT DONATIONS
A major hurdle which ensures that patients continue to suffer when in need of blood is the fact that some blood banks continue to demand replacement donations. Some blood banks, especially in the resource rich settings have a tendency to force patients into taking blood from their own blood banks and they continue to ask the families to bring in donors, unmindful of the harassment faced by families. This is happening right under the nose of the regulators in gross violation of the national blood policy. Sankalp India Foundation experiences that more patients, especially from the urban centers, who are struggling to find donors are victims of replacement based blood banking. It should be noted that in most of these situations voluntarily donated blood units are available. While we continue to support patients by connecting them to donors, we strongly criticize such practices and hope that such donations will reduce in the days to come.
With each passing year the emergency wing of Sankalp is getting more complicated and difficult to manage blood requests to handle. Rarer blood groups, lesser known hematological conditions and advancements in blood transfusion medicine are now part of the day to day blood requesting handling. The team is committed to building skill within itself and that of other involved parties to ensure that no person suffers because of blood availability.