"A whooping 91 blood requests came to the emergency wing of Sankalp in the month of November. We would have taken this as a bad mark on the availability of blood and voluntary blood donation normally; however, closer look at requests portrayed a different picture.
Out of the 91 requests (246 units requested), 60 requests were for rare blood groups demanding a total of 161 units of blood including 6 Bombay blood group units. One third of all the requests were for A-ve blood group. 10 SDP requests were received mostly for B+ve and A+ve. These requests came to Sankalp from 18 districts spread across 3 states. The ratio of Whole blood to packed cells blood requests was 5:1.
The good part is that we were able to ensure that each person found adequate help. However, the requests pattern highlights some noteworthy patterns. ”
Though the availability of blood in general was good across the state, there was a considerable shortage of rare blood groups.
In particular A-ve blood group went out of stock in Bangalore and there was a huge shortage in the city leading to escalation of most blood requests at the blood help line for A-ve to the emergency team level.
The clinicians are still asking for Whole Blood indicating poor level of awareness and highlighting the need for steps to be taken to improve the scenario.
The blood requests which are not resolved locally are gradually finding their way to Sankalp help line not just from the prominent districts in the state but also from the far flung corners.
The emergency team had a very interesting time with each volunteer getting to attend to almost one emergency per day. Fortunately, the knowledge base, the protocols and the teamwork helps ensure that each of these request is taken care of the way we have envisioned.