63 districts without blood banks

New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, it has come to notice that 63 districts in the country have no blood bank facility. In reply to a question, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told Lok Sabha on Friday that there are 3,500 licensed blood banks in the country and 63 districts are without the facility.

Elaborating on the steps taken or proposed by the government to set up blood banks in each district of the country, Mandaviya said the extant policy norm for setting up blood banks as per National Blood Policy is to have at least one licensed blood bank in every district while avoiding clustering of the blood banks in urban and semi-urban areas.

The policy also advocates for a hub and spoke approach towards transfusion services, wherein blood is collected and processed in hubs, which are high volume blood banks and distributed through spokes, which are smaller blood banks and blood storage centres.