We will talk and discuss about some serious issues and the dark truth of blood bank in Nepal. The Dark truth of Nepali blood Banks, as we all have seen posts from few days ago about blood donation program in social media pages asking for the blood. But blood banks in Nepal are unable to provide blood to the required patient. A best slogan “Donate Blood” “Save Life”.
But when a donor need a blood while emergency at that moment blood banks fails to provide blood to the patient and we have to get the help of social media instead of blood banks. In Nepal there are mostly few people who are a part of blood donation programs in Nepal.
People Also Read: Hocus Pocus 2: Full Movie Download For Free
People Also Read: Jajarkot and Rukum Earthquake Update: 128 Dead, 100 Injured
According to the World bank, Nepal has the population of 30.3 million (2021). People donate in the presence of humanity to save a life of a next person. But in Nepal the blood management system is the main problem we can raise hands on. Most of the bloods are getting waste by the poor management of blood banks in Nepal. The dark reality of the Nepal blood banks is that they get blood for free from a donor instead they charge a huge sum of amount to the patient.
Table of Contents
Every human being has a big misconception that the blood will be provided to the patient and will be helped for saving someone life. But the truth is that bloods are divided into three parts RBC (Red Blood Cell), Platelets and Plasma. A person suffering from Thalassemia requires RBC whereas Dengue patient requires Plasma. But In Nepal we they don’t acquire any of these things, blood banks mostly provide whole blood to the patient suffering from a certain disease.
Himal Khabar was posted in Tuesday, 22 Falgun,2074
According to the Nepal Red Cross Society, 35% of the blood collected across is wasted due to the inability to separate blood elements.
Source: https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/6940
After reading this article, it appears that many people in Nepal have not been able to obtain the necessary amount of blood from blood banks. If you are able to secure a required blood from a blood bank, you may be considered fortunate, but the associated costs and fees are often higher than what is regulated. This notice includes some information.
Source: National Population Management Organization
This proves that for a simple 1point blood the minimum charge is from NPR 810 to NPR 1640. But it was the blood that was given by the donor for free. But we don’t know why there is a hike in price of human blood. Nepal Red Cross society who says that the price they pay for blood is mostly used for transportation of blood from places to the blood banks. Mostly people have complained that here is no high cost to operate a human blood and they are charging a lot higher than normal rate.
A true life incident that occurred in 2019, A 5years old girl died in “Shahid Gangalal National Heart Centre” named Akriti Kumar Shah was killed by a nurse by giving a wrong blood group.
Himalayan Report-Kathmandu blood transfused…
The Himalayan times posted in their news saying that Aakriti of Sarlahi district died after one of the on-duty nurses transfused ‘ A-positive’ blood group during her surgery, through her blood group was ‘ O-positive.’
Why do we see such a issues in hospital when we already have a serious number of blood donor in Nepal. Let’s a little deep in this issue.
The Business in Blood in Nepal “POLITICS” “MONEY”
There was a time when Rana’s where used to rule whole Nepal, in 1944, a patient in Bir Hospital needed blood but at that time everybody refused to donate the blood to the patient even her mother refused it. It was the generation where people used to say that donation of blood was used to know as a death for them. But a man named “Daya Bir Singh Kansakar” accept to give the blood to that patient and saved the life of that patient. Later on he was known as a famous social worker of Nepal. He is also known as the first person to donate blood in Nepal.
After a decade, The first Blood transfusion Service (BTS), was established in 1966 with the mission of ensuring an adequate, safe , and cheap supply of blood and blood products to meet the transfusion needs of the Nepalese people. After the establishment of BTS formally the blood donation was taking pace at it’s own road. But at that time there was a low amount of donors in the service.
To increase the blood donation program BTS used to conduct and advertisement to the people and used to give money in order to donate the blood. Mostly labour people used to donate their blood and instead money was provided by the BTS. After some time to get money mostly people used to donate their blood to get a sum of money for their daily life.
After having a change in blood donation program, In 1996 Nepal Red Cross Society took its place to start Blood transfusion service in Nepal as a helping organ in blood donation. Nepal Government made Nepal Red Cross Society a sole operative in Nepal to donate and give blood to the required places.
How can you donate your Blood in Nepal?
To Donate the blood, first of all they examine your age, weight, hemoglobin count. After the completion of these tests, you will be ready to donate blood. You can donate at least 1pint of blood which is equal to half liters of blood at a time. To recover the blood, it usually takes upon 24hours to 48hours. But the given blood by the donor cannot be used immediately instead it goes through a series of tests in the lab after passing the test the blood becomes ready for the patient.
Seeing the different types and quality of packages the blood and be kept in the bag for 5 to 6 weeks but this is only for the whole blood. Different blood components have different storage time for example RBC which is known as Red Blood Cell which can be stored up to 42days and Platelets has 5-7days and Frozen Plasma has the highest storage date which is up to 1year.
By using of centrifugal force it helps to separate the blood component’s. Different kind of situations requires a different kind of blood component. That’s why one blood donation can save up to many lives. But in Nepal, in most majority cases this kind of tests are not performed in the labs which takes place in wastage of 35% blood. In most cases hospitals demands more than required blood to their facilities.
Hospitals makes a backup for the blood as well as asks the patients relatives for the more requirements of blood. But in most cases they do not use the extra packs of blood and it doesn’t goes back to blood banks and it becomes a waste to the environment. Due to this action more and more blood are being wasted which produces the scarcity of blood in Nepal.
LIST AND PRICES OF BLOOD DONATION COSTING
- Blood Bag which cost is 150 but it actually cost is 80 only
- Transfusion Set which cost 100 but it actual cost is 30 only
- Cross matching 200(tube method) 280(Get card method)
- Donor hemoglobin which cost is 60
- Donor refreshment which cost is 150
- Blood group check 50(tube method) 250( Get card method)
Private hospital are charging way high than the Red Cross Society which results a black marketing on a blood. “if you guys some proof than you can leave me a comment with your mail address” Due to price difference in different parts of the country and hospital their is no proper management in blood in the Nepal.
An article posted by myRepublica which says that, “blood banks test only for HIV, HCV, HBSAG and VDRL in donated blood. There are several other latent risk factors such as cancer and genetic diseases that are not tested for yet”. Few hospital performs these testes but most of the hospital does not run this kind of testing to reduce the cost of the blood and make it sell in a higher price.
THE HIMALAYAN TIMES,
According to NCASC, since July 2016, 166people have contracted HIV due to transfusion of blood and blood products- 78males, 35femals and three transgender. You can read
Due to this kind of carelessness, people tend to loose their lives in hospital. In most cases, cancer patient requires eradiated blood for the treatment. “If the blood is not radiated, there is 99 percent of death in cancer and bone marrow transplant cases,” said Dr Poudyal. According to the WHO, it is the compulsory testes that should be done by every hospital. Mostly few hospitals only perform these testing which have their own eradiated machine expect others don’t have these machines and doesn’t perform any of these tests.
A Society who takes responsibility of the whole process of blood which has a helping hand to save every person lives, that organization is unstable at these times. Red Cross Society has a heavy political influence, at a time there were two chairman which made the whole organization in confusion. Due to their personal affairs they were events that were raised on the behalf of mismanagement.
DONATION OF BLOOD BAGS BY OTHER COUNTRIES IN 2072 EARTHQUAKE
Countries making a large number of donation of blood banks for free but the Red Cross Society was selling it for 80ruppes. Voice where raised by The Nepal Volunteer Blood Donor Society against it and then the Red Cross Society stooped the free Distribution. Later 50,000 bags were destroyed after the expiration date. Red Cross also makes some more charges in blood to improve in technologies that are being used in their labs and also helps to promote the blood donation. They spend more than a crore in a blood campaign for a blood test.
Most of the blood donation is performed in Kathmandu Districts which is onefourth population of Nepal. But only the donation of blood from Kathmandu cannot cover the whole blood problems. In order to increase the donation program more and more districts should have awareness of blood donation program which will help to decrease the blood shortage in Nepal.
An article which was posted by WHO says that “TO MEET A NATION’S MOST BASIC REQUIREMENT FOR BLOOD DONATION BY 1-2% OF THE POPULATION IS GENERALLY NEEDED”. But, if we faced some natural disaster or pandemic we will require a more number of blood donation while we will be in shortage for which we are totally unprepared because we don’t have minimum 1% of blood donor.
While the time of festivals or other kinds of festivals during that time there is a shortage of blood in the blood banks which makes more trouble to the patient and the hospital.
A Vast change in blood donation in Nepal
After discussing a more bad and tragic points and the dark reality of the blood banks in Nepal, things have gone to far till now we have seen better employees coming in this field better and most of the organizations are performing blood donation programs all over the world. I didn’t meant to set a bad affects of blood banks in Nepal but a awareness that every people should know about it the past reality of blood banks which made mistakes and internal affairs related with politics.
Hospitals and Organizations are importing better technology machines related to blood testing which is a vast development in the history of Nepal. In most cases, more VDC and Sub-metropolitan cities have raised their own money to increase the flow of blood donation in their different parts of cities. They also have started to give the blood for free to the needed ones.
During my discussion about the Red Cross, I want to clarify that I do not believe the organization is entirely bad or ineffective in their efforts. In fact, they have accomplished many admirable things for our country. However, it is important to acknowledge that there are still challenges and issues that need to be addressed. By addressing these challenges, we can work towards reducing shortages in Nepal and implementing a more efficient management system.
If you have any queries about this article you may leave a comment below.
This article or discussion in this topic is only for educational purposes. As if we face any false information regarding this topic, I will be glad to discuss this on behalf.
For some Queries: Tejash Lama