Kolkata: An apparent apathy among the people to donate blood has led to a dip in blood donation camps in the state in the recent past and if the situation continues for a long a time, it might have an impact on the supply of blood to various blood banks.
According to a senior official in the state Health department, the number of blood donation camps has gone down in the state recently as there were not enough donors.
The official also expressed his concern over the availability of blood in various government-run blood banks if the blood donation camps are not properly conducted. Various organisations and clubs mainly conduct blood donation camps in various districts as well as the city.
A scarcity of blood is normally triggered in the state when camps are not held during the festive seasons or due to prolonged process of elections. But during the winter season, a crisis of blood seldom occurs.
It has been learnt that many clubs have failed to organise camps recently, as a result of which a crisis of negative blood groups has already been created.
"We are getting calls from the relatives of the patients who are requiring emergency blood. Many of the patients' relatives are looking for donors as they failed to get blood in the blood banks. We had expected that the clubs would organise camps even during Christmas but it did not happen," said an official of a state-run blood bank in the city.
The number of blood donation camps has gone down since Puja. Some local clubs and political parties have conducted camps in some places but the number is comparatively lower than that of previous years.
In some cases, where the organisers said that around 100 donors would take part in the camp, less than half that number turned up. Even in the city, as many as 400-600 people used to donate their blood in some camps, which have closed down in the past one year. However, there had been a steady supply of blood from the district camps earlier.
"We have not yet received any such information about the blood crisis in the government-run blood banks in the state. We are looking into the matter to see if there is any possibility of blood crisis in the future," a senior Health department official said.
(Image form dnaindia.com)