Blood banks run out of kits

All blood banks supported by National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) are buying HIV ELISA (human immunodeficiency virus enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) kits, which are used to identify HIV-antibodies in the blood, from other sources as the organisation has run out of them. NACO has informed the Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS) that the supply of the kits would resume only after March 31.
According to documents that are in the possession of The Asian Age, the Sion Hospital blood bank, in an email to the Mumbai Districts AIDS Control Society (MDACS), has stated, “We don’t have HIV kits, so kindly try to as early as possible to mobilise the kits.” In reply to this, Dr Seema P. Todur, quality manager (blood safety), MDACS, provided contacts of NACO-approved suppliers to provide National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) validated kits to all the blood banks.

Blood bank officials discuss speculation on blood tax

In relation to a speculation that the central government may impose a 14.5 per cent tax on blood and blood products delivered from blood banks in the upcoming budget, representatives of such banks were summoned to prepare a resolution that would be submitted to the state health minister.
The meeting was held last Tuesday. However, no official circular or notice on the matter has been released yet.
To discuss this, the Federation of Bombay Blood Banks (FBBB) summoned representatives from 25 blood banks on February 9 at S.L. Raheja Hospital. Confirming the news, Dr Neelam Nijhara, secretary, FBBB, said, “We held a private meeting regarding this but until we get an official statement from the government, we cannot disclose further information.”
According to documents accessed by The Asian Age, the representatives might meet the state health minister on February 23 to discuss the issue. Dr Sunil Rajadhyaksha, head of of the department of transfusion medicine, Tata Memorial Hospital, one of the representatives who were part of the meeting, said, “This has been going around but until something concrete comes out, we can’t say anything. The tax on blood may be a presumption but we have to wait till the budget is declared.”

SHRC sends suo moto notice to Aids society over fund crunch

The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has sent a suo moto notice to Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS) for shortage of funds for HIV treatment, irregular distribution of condoms, and lack of drugs at Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) centres in the state. SHRC has made these observations based on articles published in the media.
“We have sent a suo moto notice to MSACS by acting on reports published in the media. We are yet to receive any response, as it has been sent just a few days ago. In the past one year, we have taken up 52 cases under suo moto,” said Justice Bhannurmath, chairperson, SHRC.

NGO, hospital give baby new lease of life

Eight-month-old Kavya Shinde, who has been suffering from a serious cardiac ailment, will finally get a new lease of life as a hospital and an NGO joined hands to arrange the money for her surgery and further treatment.
Vision Child Foundation has collected `2 lakh for Kavya’s surgery while Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital will pay another Rs 2 lakh required for her treatment. She will be admitted at the hospital on Monday for the surgery.
The infant is suffering from a congenital heart disease, a birth defect that affects the normal functioning of the heart. According to the doctors, she needs to undergo an urgent open-heart surgery followed by intracardiac repair that helps in increasing blood flow to the heart. If not operated upon immediately, Kavya may not survive much longer, the doctors said.

Women helpline functions for only 8 hours a day in Maharashtra

The centralised women helpline number — 181 — that was proposed for better safety of women after the Delhi gang rape incident has failed to assist women in need as it is functional only between 10 am and 6 pm. Also, none of the one-stop-crisis centres have been connected to the helpline. This, in spite of Mumbai ranking high in terms of the number of criminal cases recorded in India.
The central government announced the centralised helpline number in all states, but it got delayed in Maharashtra. So, in June this year, a fresh announcement was made to start the helpline number in the state. But surprisingly, the helpline functions only between 10 am and 6 pm. There are no call attendants at night.

Separation units are a bloody mess

Even as the government has invested more than Rs 16 lakh to provide expensive equipment to Dr RN Cooper and Rajawadi hospitals’ blood banks for establishing blood component separation units, it is yet to start functioning.
To provide the infrastructure to separate life saving components from whole blood to more hospitals, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced in 2010 that a blood component separation unit would be started in Rajawadi hospital. The executive committee sanctioned the proposal to construct another one at Cooper Hospital on September 17, 2014. However, as per the documents accessed by The Asian Age, both the units are still pending.

Flashback 2015: Work on making Aruna’s room a crisis centre yet to begin

As soon as you enter the 250-square-foot room on the ground floor of ward number 4 of KEM Hospital, a notice on the board greets you saying, “This is Aruna Shanbaug’s room’. Indeed, a semi-comatose, cortically blind Aruna spent 42 years of her tragic life, bed-ridden in this room, after she was inhumanly raped and violated by a former KEM ward boy. Finally, on May 18 this year, she succumbed to her untold suffering. The room became a poignant reminder of her struggle and similar hardships that many other rape victims like her might have endured.
As a mark of respect, the state government, in September this year, announced that the room would be made part of a 1,000 square foot open crisis centre. However, when The Asian Age paid a visit to the ward just the other day, we found that nothing had moved since the announcement.

Amputee gets verdict, but no justice

After fighting for 13 years, Raghavendra Rao, 39, won the first battle of his medical negligence case when the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission held the accused doctor accountable of not taking proper consent before conducting the surgery.
A fine of Rs 25,000 was imposed on the doctor that was supposed to be handed over to the victim but even after a year has passed since the incident, the victim is yet to receive the amount.

‘Small nursing homes will vanish under Act’

The Medicos Legal ActionGroup has express discontent about the inter-ministerial committee decision onnot exempting small-sized nursing homes across the country from the ClinicalEstablishment Act (CEA). Thousands of small and medium healthcareestablishments (SMHCE) across India will vanish due to the Act in the comingyears due to the stringent rules, experts have claimed.

“All small-sized nursing homes dotting the country will get closed down in coming years under CEA. Small and medium healthcare establishments, irrespective of whether they are manned by a single doctor or multiple doctors and irrespective of being in rural or urban areas, nursing homes with up to 20 beds should be given relaxation in minimum standards as is given to small and medium scale industries under a separate Act,” said Dr Neeraj Nagpal, convenor, Medicos Legal Action Group, managing director MLAG Indemnity.

SMHCE mainly represents nursing homes with less than 20 beds. In a recent meeting held on December 8, the committee exempted only ‘single doctor establishments’ (SDE).

Patients feel the crunch in hospital-staff standoff

Every year, hundreds fallprey to HIV infection through blood transfusion, states the data given by National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco). However, medical experts said manyinfected patients do not reveal their medical condition while donating blood. Butgovernment bodies that monitor transfusion don’t have any regulations to curbsuch incidences.

As per a Right to Information application in possession with The Asian Age, the central government body, Naco along with Mumbai Districts AIDS Control Society (MDACS) that function under it don’t have any penal provision under the blood policy. The person who filed the RTI application did not want to reveal his identity.

“We don’t have any penal provision to stop such activities. If a donor deliberately donates his infected blood, the medical expert on field won’t know about it. So, there is no way to control such activities,” said Dr Srikala Acharya, director of Mumbai State AIDS Control Society (Msacs).

“After blood test, if we find any donor positive, we dispose the blood and contact the donor for counseling. We advice such donors not to donate their blood again and take precautionary measures,” she added.

‘Rise in temperature will affect male fertility’

The rising temperatures in the city caused by climate change will have a majorimpact on men as with the increase in temperature, their fertility decreases,claimed medical experts.

“The temperature of Mumbai is comparatively better than other western regional states. But the fluctuation in temperature is a concern. If there is a long span of days when the temperature is above 27 degree Celsius, then it affects the fertility in men as the sperm count drops,” said Dr Suchitra Pandit, gynecologist and obstetrician, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. Addressing the concern, Dr Hetal Parekh, consultant fertility physician, from Hiranandani Hospital said, “We have seen that in winter months, men are more fertile than in summer months due to the difference in temperature. So, if winters also become warmer, the fertility in men will be adversely affected thus resulting in low reproduction rate.”

In 10 years, only 3 doctos suspended

Over 746 cases of medical negligence recorded, but actiontaken against meagre number of doctors. In the past 10 years, over 746 cases of medical negligence have been recordedwith the Medical Council of India (MCI), Maharashtra, but so far, only threedoctors have been suspended in the state.

According to data gathered from MCI, complaints about medical negligence have seen a steady rise. In 2005, only 54 cases were registered which rose to 142 in 2014.

Also, the rate of disposal of cases has suffered a decline. In 2014, the council did not dispose of a single case whereas in 2013, out of a total of 107 cases registered, only 13 were decided upon.

Centralised blood bank awaits funds

Even as medical experts insist that blood banks be made centralised, the Rs 340 crore central project, Centre of Excellence in Transfusion Medicine (COE) at Sion Hospital, has hit a roadblock. The project was proposed in 2009 and had been approved by the Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) in 2011.

However, the proposed state-of-the-art Metro Blood Bank is in the lurch as National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) failed to provide money, a Right to Information query has revealed. Suresh Shetty, who had initiated the project during his tenure as health minister, said, “The project had hit roadblocks initially because of opposition by hospital staff over the approval of land but we resolved the issue and also got approval from the BMC.

Only 60 per cent kids got free glasses under scheme

The state health department has fallen short of its target to provide free spectacles to more than 84,000 schoolchildren under the National Blindness Control Programme (NBCP) with only 60 per cent of the estimated children getting the benefit so far.
Under National Blindness Control Programme (NBCP), the state health department was supposed to provide free spectacles to more than 84,000 school children, but the benefit has only been provided to 60 per cent of the targeted children. According to data procured by The Asian Age, only 51,736 school children studying in government schools have been provided with free spectacles while 32,544 children were left out.