Lax government monitoring of the operation of blood banks across the country is risking people's lives as unethical practices are allegedly rife in many cases of medical emergency like blood transfusion.
A source in the National Expert Council for Safe Blood Transfusion said more than 1,500 blood banks are running without valid licences across the country.
Though a total of 300 banks do have their licences, most of them also are not going by the government-set standards.
Secretary of the National Expert Council for Safe Blood Transfusion Prof Ashadul Islam said the government is not active in monitoring the operation of blood banks.
"Though crackdowns were launched on a number of occasions, follow-ups are absent."
He mentioned that during a drive several months back, the authorities found a group of people mixing intra-venous (IV) saline with blood to increase its volume at some places in the capital.
"Other deadly facts like infusion of unscreened blood, blood selling and buying and screening by using low-quality reagents are common now across the country," he said.
Prof Islam regretted though the law-enforcing agencies sometimes went for crackdown, they were not going to the unlicensed blood banks.
He alleged that in the capital city, except few posh private hospitals, blood banks in most private hospitals and medical colleges do not have licences. And they are charging higher for blood screening, bypassing the government-set rates.
Another source in the national expert council mentioned that a few days back a person named Sabuj at Creative Blood Bank in Mohammadpur area was found guilty of increasing blood volume by mixing IV saline.
Another such heinous act was detected at Shondhan Blood Bank in Mirpur, he said.
"Hundreds of such acts are taking place across the country -- both in the licensed and unlicensed banks -- in the absence of government monitoring and control," said the source.
He found problems also with the monitoring authority, as there are no expert officials in the team.
"They are not trained to identify faults and understand the nature of violations."
Prof Islam, also the head of department of Safe Blood Transfusion at BSMMU, suggests the monitoring team may give time to the banks to train staffs and stop unfair means instead of fully stopping their operations.
He noted that, as there is no government monitoring, a good number of blood banks are still waiting for licence renewal.
He pointed out a double standard in this respect: the licence-holders are harassed while the non-licensed ones are doing their operations without any trouble from the law-enforcing agencies.
He said most of the banks are not maintaining the government rules in blood transfusion. "As a result, some cases of suffering from infectious diseases have already been detected among the receivers."
According to the blood-transfusion society sources blood banks in the posh private hospitals are charging much more money from the patients in screening, and matching.
They alleged many public hospitals are also in danger level in blood transfusion as they do not have test reagents, equipment and skilled technicians.
The head of the BSMMU blood-transfusion department said due to absence of monitoring and supervision, violations are on the rise both in the licensed and unlicensed blood banks.
He pointed out that there is still no central motoring body, and though the government has planned setting up National Blood Centre in Mahakhali, its construction work is yet to start.
The medical university professor is optimistic that once the national centre is commissioned and the government employs person power, then it would be helpful in monitoring the blood banks' activities.
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