PESHAWAR: The shortage of staff has been hampering the operations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Blood Transfusion Authority for the last several years.

Blood Transfusion Authority (BTA) is meant to regulate the donation of blood and ensure that patients get disease-free blood in hospitals. It was established in February 2017 to regulate the collection, testing, processing, storage, distribution, issuance and transfusion of human blood and blood components in public and private sectors with a view to ensure health protection and prevent the spread of transmissible diseases.

However, after passing of more than six years, BTA doesn’t have a single inspector to oversee the operations of more than 500 blood banks working in public and private sectors in the province.

Sources in the health department told this scribe that it was a serious issue because the province was already reporting cases of hepatitis that was spreadable through contaminated blood and its products.

Officials say meeting of BoG expected soon to discuss the matter

In October 2016, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Blood Transfusion Safety Authority Act was passed and health department established regional blood centres in Peshawar, Abbottabad, Swat and Dera Ismail Khan to provide screened blood to patients in public sector hospitals in the respective regions.

Three more regional blood centres in Kohat, Bannu and Mardan will begin functioning within a few months as 80 per cent of civil work on those centres has been completed. However, officials in the health department said that they had received a proposal from relevant officials to recruit 36 staffers, mostly inspectors, to ensure that people get disease-free blood and stay safe from infections.

Sources said that besides RBCs, only few centres in private sector adhered to protocols required for blood collection. They said that the authority had to reach out to centres, which did not follow laws. They added that the formation of a strong team for regular inspections of such centres would be possible when the government sanctioned the desired staff.

They said that the recruitment of staff would patients as they would get disease-free blood.

They said that a meeting of board of governors of the authority was expected soon to discuss shortage of personnel and ensure that public and private blood banks get the latest and quality equipment and kits etc in addition to fulfil the formalities mentioned in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Blood Transfusion Safety Regulations, 2017, notified by health department.

Officials in the health department said that 11 posts of inspectors, mostly pathologists, had already been approved by the government but the BoG wanted more positions to cover the whole province. “Only Peshawar needs three inspectors. In every district, there are private and government blood banks, which need to have the required staff, location and temperature, etc as per law,” they added.

They said that presently, the authority used the services of pathologists from RBCs for inspections in respective districts. The inspectors regularly visit blood banks and guide their staff regarding safety measures. Blood and its component, being provided to patients after certain tests from RBCs, is free of cost.

Sources said that sometimes an apparently healthy person donated blood but after screening it was found that he was having hepatitis. Such people were then informed by RBCs so that they could consult physicians, they said.

“The RBC is providing blood to patients in medical teaching institutions in Peshawar after testing it with the help of modern machines run by qualified people but private banks require monitoring,” they said.

Sources said that BTA could make progress after recruitment of staff owing to the growth of healthcare establishments in private sector. Except a few, most of the districts in the province had hospitals with blood banks, which were not properly checked due to a shortage of personnel, they said.

Officials said that the health secretary would visit the RBC Peshawar to take up matters relating to BTA soon.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2024