Fulfilling Dr. Rahul Gupta’s dream; “Green Heals’ new blood bank is a technological upliftment,” Rudra Narayan Gupta

When Dr Rahul Gupta got Dr S Ugale to perform laparoscopic surgery in Green View Hospital in 1994/95, it was an unknown commodity for the none-academicians. Today, it is a common phenomenon popularly known as “pinhole operation”. On the occasion of the fifth death anniversary of Dr Rahul Gupta – a visionary industrialist, Green Heals Hospital inaugurated its Blood Bank in Beltola Silchar.

Dr Rahul Gupta Memorial Blood Centre a unit of the Green Heals aims to make blood donation simple and accessible. The newly constructed blood bank houses a registration counter, counselling room where the weight, medical history, haemoglobin will be checked by the medical officer. Any donor with haemoglobin ranging between 12.5 and 16.5 can donate blood.

The blood bank has a storage capacity of 300 units and the capability of collecting 50 units a day. On the first day itself (August 16, 2021), there was a voluntary blood donation camp among the employees of the Green Heals Hospital and around 20 units were collected following the process to test the new facility.

Rudra Narayan Gupta, director of the Green Heals Hospital informs that they have played special attention to acquire modern equipment. “We knew we were setting the standards for others to follow. So, it is for the larger good of the industry and the people we serve, we decided to start with quality machines. Now, if tomorrow someone else launches a blood bank, they will either match our standards or bring in something better which will develop the overall infrastructure,” says Gupta.

Explaining more about the machines, Gupta shares, the blood bank will have the capacity of component separation which will be carried out automatically by the machine. From one unit of blood, plasma, RBC, WBC etc. will be separated and stored separately. As whole blood can be detrimental to a lot of patients suffering from diseases like thalassemia, Cancer, the blood bank will provide the particular component(s) prescribed by doctor.

To start with, the blood bank will charge around Rs 1700 per unit for component or whole blood. However, Rudra Narayan Gupta informs that for the economically weaker section of people, they will provide concessions. Also, the Blood Bank will only provide blood against donation. “Gradually, we intend to create a database of Thalassemia patients for us to serve them better. From the very beginning, we have kept a couple of beds in a dedicated room for blood transfusion. So, the patients don’t need to run to a hospital and book a bed for transfusion,” adds Rudra Narayan Gupta.

He further shares that the Blood Bank will have a portal of its own that will display the real-time status of stock available. Gupta believes this will reduce the time and make it simpler for the attendants. “A unit of blood can be the difference between life and death. This is something we will always have at the core of everything we do in this blood bank,” asserts Rudra Narayan Gupta.

Soon the blood bank will have facilities of Fully automatic blood grouping and cross-matching, which, Gupta believes will bring “revolutionary up-gradation” to the industry. He says it is not an economically profitable business proposition to run a blood bank that will forever remain heavily regulated and restricted by the Central and State Drug Control Authority. The private blood banks aren’t allowed to conduct external camps and each internal blood donation camp it hosts, come with a heavy cost attached to it.

Dr. Rahul Gupta died on August 16, 2016. “We always have a sense of incompleteness. He was a good doctor but operated from a small chamber with mediocre facilities. Though he never said anything to us, we always had a sense that he craved for better infrastructure. It was like his untold dream to have better, smarter and well-equipped hospital. That is what drives us to launch these facilities,” says Rudra Narayan Gupta.

From the first pinhole operation to having a private Oxygen Plant and now a blood bank, the Guptas have come a long way in the healthcare sectors. The group kept diversifying and at the same time, took risks. It was the first private hospital to admit Covid patients and during the second wave, it was the busiest one among all. “We will continue to innovate and launch new services whenever we see the scope for improvement. The blood bank is an example of that,” Rudra Narayan Gupta concludes.