Whose responsibility is it to provision safe blood for patients in need? The patient/patient family? or the hospital/blood bank? or the blood donor/donor organizations or all of them together?
Bangalore is a prominent medical hub in the country. With a population of nearly 1-1.5 crore individuals it is a busy city. Over the years, the percentage of voluntarily donated safe blood available off the shelf has risen to nearly 70%. However, this number is in seasons where the environment is conducive for multiple blood donation drives with students and corporate coming forward in big numbers. In seasons of non-availability of educational institutions or holidays in the corporate/industry the numbers fall to as small as 30-40%. Over the years, it has been seen that the year-end holiday season from 15th December to the early new year season upto 15th January the worst hit. To add to the situation, it is also true that it is in these peak holiday period that people opt for elective surgeries or long pending treatments - thereby increasing the need for blood.
Sankalp Rakta Kranti was formed in March 2007 with an intention to take the city and slowly the state towards 100% voluntary blood donation. With a collection of mere 72 units in the first year to nearly 13,000 in it’s 10th year the growth trajectory has been encouraging and most importantly taking little steps to satisfy the goal of reaching 100% voluntary blood donation. Yet, over the last 3 years the numbers in the winter season has been very discouraging with very few blood donation drives and a very meagre collection. Several options were explored to see what more could be done to increase collection. We realized that there are several donors in public places and small organizations who can donate. The biggest challenge was to find a suitable place for donation which is within the vicinity of the donor.
The Blood Mobile idea is born
After much research, it was felt that a mobile blood donation van is the only possible solution. The Blood Mobile is a mobile blood donation van that can be used for outdoor voluntary blood donation drives. In situations where an appropriate room for donation cannot be obtained this is extremely useful. The van generally has sufficient space and ventilation to accommodate 4 or 6 donations at a time. Over a 5-hour donation period 60-70 donors can donate blood. Mobile blood donation vans have been used extensively in the US and few European countries. In the last 5-6 years, it has been popular and functional in some parts of India too – Ahmedabad, Chennai.
There is a Blood Mobile with one of the blood banks in Bangalore. Our attempts to gain access to that vehicle on our preferable dates and with blood banks whom we felt were more deserving of blood donation drives proved futile. Even if it were to be available, the conditions laid down seemed inconsistent with the ideology of our organization. We took it upon ourselves to bring in another Blood Mobile for Bangalore.
The Plan for Roll Out
A detailed financial modeling was done. While the capital expenditure for the vehicle, equipment and cost incurred for program setup was to be raised by Sankalp, the operational cost would have to be managed through a cooperative model between Sankalp and participating blood banks. We were looking to have the program rolled out and operational on 26th January 2017.
In August 2016, with great enthusiasm, we decided to put the plan to action and roll out a Blood Mobile to increase the collection of voluntarily donated blood units in Bangalore city. We believed that should the groundwork start in August; the project must be a reality by January 2017 and that there would be relief this winter. Ground assessment of possible camp opportunities were made and donor bases were being built up. We were confident that 4 months of hard work will result in the project being rolled out on time. We then reached out to blood banks in the city with this detailed plan and a request to share only the operational costs. We hoped that this would script a new chapter in the city.
Sankalp India Foundation would plan and manage the entire operations. This included scheduling of blood donation drives, recruitment of donors, publicizing the event, creating awareness and motivation among donors and managing the blood donation drive to ensure compliance to quality standards. A complete technology backplane would have also been created by Sankalp for the same. The drives would have been so planned that about 25-50 units are generated in a time of 3-5 hours. These drives would have been scheduled in Bangalore Urban and Rural districts.
The Blood Bank team would be required to join the Blood Mobile at the site of camp for the duration of drive. A minimum commitment of collection of 1200 - 1500 units a year or 40 camps a year whichever is less was asked from the blood banks to share the operational costs.
The Disappointment
Unfortunately, we did not receive any positive commitment from any blood bank. While some of them rejected it outright, many others chose to be silent despite several follow ups. Nevertheless, we made a re-assessment by understanding the operational cost numbers from 2 reputed blood banks in the state. That assessment too made us believe that the proposal was fair and transparent. Finally, on the 2nd of January 2017 we were left with no option but to drop the project with a heavy heart. The question comes back: Whose responsibility is it to provision safe blood for patients in need? The patient/patient family? or the hospital/blood bank? or the blood donor/donor organizations or all of them together?
For now, the answer seems unclear. Sankalp however stays fully committed to it's goal of taking VBD to 100% and are already seeking the next available opportunity to take the next significant step in this direction.