Exclusive: Bags of blood collected in SMCH lying on dumping ground; "Hospital's BMW is responsible not blood bank," Dr. Rajib Biswas

Not one or two but more than 30 Blood Bags made for the Collection and Preservation of 350ML of human blood was filmed by a whistleblower inside the compound of Silchar Medical College and Hospital. The video shot next to the Tuberculosis Ward of SMCH comes as a shock as those packs are filled with human blood, especially, in a country that celebrates Prime Minister’s birth anniversary by kickstarting the nationwide blood donation campaign – ‘Raktdan Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.

Amidst all the solid waste like bottles of packaged water, paper boxes, the bags filled with blood were left abandoned on the ground. Flies were sitting on them, cows were seen chewing those bags while dogs try to get a bite. The sheer unhygienic dumping of blood donated at a blood bank is not just a gross violation of Government SOP, Bio-medical Waste Management but also an insult to the blood donation movement of the country.

A closer look at the Blood Bags lying on the ground reveals more inconsistencies on behalf of the Blood Bank. On each bag, there is a sticker consisting of crucial rows and columns to be filled by the official handling them, most of them are callously or maliciously left vacant. For example, there is a designated slot to tick if the donor was a replacement or voluntary. Then there are slots to key in Serology details – if the blood samples collected from the donation and then tested positive for Hepatitis, HIV among others, those details are also missing. The Blood Bank that does not bother to fill in important information on the sticker unsurprisingly ignores the slot to mention the name “Collected and Typed By”.

When asked why are the important pieces of information missing on the stickers of each bag found lying on the ground, Dr. Rajib Biswas, in charge of the Blood Bank at Silchar Medical College and Hospital told Barakbulletin.con, “We maintain a log book duly filled with all the details.” Well, he might be maintaining a log, but that does not answer why the stickers are not filled.

Also, information of significant pivots like Donor ID, Blood Group, Date of Collection, and Date of Expiry is handwritten on the stickers. These do not have the validation of any escalation authority nor are signed by the official handling the bag. Unless there is a departmental probe, it is impossible to look at the bags and find answers to questions like – if they were dumped as the officials did not like the donor or if they were dumped as they were rejected due to seropositivity or if they accidentally landed on the dumping ground. Moreover, handwritten information can be distorted by people with vested interests.

“How did the Blood Bags reach the dumping ground is something that is outside the jurisdiction of the Blood Bank. Hospital’s Biomedical Waste Management department is responsible for the waste and not the Blood Bank,” said Dr. Rajib Biswas passing the parcel. However, if these bags are wasted or not is something that remains a matter of investigation.

How can donated blood become waste? For the freshers, Silchar Medical College and Hospital’s Blood Bank follows the “Allocation By Exchange Only” policy, albeit, influential people are sanctioned blood without exchange. By exchange only model means, if a patient needs blood and that unit of that group is available in the Blood Bank, the authority will only sanction the available unit from the stock if the attendant brings another donor. That donor is called a replacement donor. It often happens that a replacement donor compromises with the vitals and conceals important information like medication, consumption of alcohol or narcotics, and visits to redlight areas. The replacement donor’s blood is stored and later tested before further transfusion. When tested if the blood samples are found seropositive (Hepatitis, HIV, Malarial Parasite among others) it is considered as waste. “It is an infected waste and is managed like other infected waste for example operated organs, bandages among others,” informed Dr. Biswas, reiterating that he should not be held responsible for bags on the ground.

While it is unknown if the Blood Bags dumped consist of rejected donations, there is a question that arises and that is – should a major institution like Blood Bank operate on Exchange only model that disrupts voluntary donation? A voluntary donation is where a donor ticks the checkboxes under no pressure and then donates. In such cases, the wastage is far lower. But that is a debate for another day.

Coming back to the bags of blood lying on the ground, Silchar Medical College and Hospital management have been claiming that they are making the Blood Bank free from middlemen by implementing certain policies. Which is the specific policy that allows the dumping of blood bags in the open? Why are the bags left unsigned? What makes SMCH feel it is all right to insult the donor by dumping his or her donation in the open? If the blood samples are rejected shouldn’t they be burnt to ashes following the SOP? There are many loose ends to the string hinting towards mismanagement in the Blood Bank if not a massive scam.