The Hindu : National : Four blood banks to be set up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 01, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Four blood banks to be set up

Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday approved the setting up of four blood banks in the major metros that would function as centres of excellence in transfusion medicine.

The blood banks would be set up in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai at a cost of Rs.468 crore. Of this amount, Rs.228 crore would come from the ongoing National AIDS Control Programme (NACP)-III, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters.

Each centre would ensure 24-hour availability of blood and designed to meet the highest standards of safety. They would extend training to doctors, technicians, nurse and other health personnel to handle natural or man-made disaster or outbreak of diseases like dengue, which often required large volumes of blood transfusions at short notice.

They would also collect blood from voluntary blood donors through state-of-art “Blood Mobiles.”

Out of Rs.468.00 crore earmarked, Rs.168 crore would be spent on development of infrastructure such as construction and procurement of equipment, Rs.80 crore for manpower development and the rest towards consumables and other recurring expenditure, Mr. Chidambaram said.

The time-frame will coincide with phase-III of the National AIDS Control Programme between 2007 and 2012.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National