Role of blood donors in saving lives lauded
Tirupati: The services of several regular repeat blood donors and organisers of various blood donation camps were aptly recognised by the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) on the occasion of 'World Blood Donor Day' being observed on the birth anniversary of the discoverer of ABO blood group system Karl Landsteiner.
Speaking on the occasion, the SVIMS Director Dr TS Ravikumar has praised tremendous contributions of blood donors saving millions of lives all over the world. He said that "Safe blood for all' was a global motto this year and blood safety starts with the donor all the way to recipient which is a multi-step process. Patient safety requires two pillars that are safety systems and human factors in which every care has to be taken.
Towards this direction, SVIMS has established the concept of 'Never Events' which are shocking, egregious, unambiguous, measurable, preventable which should never happen in health care. SVIMS has listed out seven 'Never Events' which should be eliminated among which one was avoiding mismatch blood transfusion.
Elimination of mismatch blood transfusion has been the prime initiative of SVIMS, he stressed. The Head of Department of Transfusion Medicine Dr KV Sridhar Babu has stressed the need for encouraging voluntary blood donation and it should be on top of priorities. While 1.3 crore units of blood was required globally last year only 1.11 crore units has available and the long gap underlines the need for encouraging voluntary blood donation.
MS Damodar Gupta, a retired bank manager, who donated blood for 60 times so far has said that every donor should try to donate blood twice a year so that scarcity will come down. Another donor Venkatamuni of LIC of India has felt that every donor has to take active part in convincing others to donate blood by creating awareness. Principal of Sri Padmavati Medical College for Women Dr M Hanumantha Rao, Dr H Narendra, Dr Bhaskar Reddy, Dr Govinda Narayana and others took part.