No 'excessive shortage' in blood banks: KEM Hospital

While the relatives of patients at KEM Hospital in Parel have claimed that there is a shortage of blood in the civic hospital's blood bank, the authorities have denied excessive shortage and stated that they organise blood camps to address any issues of shortage.

Dr Avinash Supe, Dean, KEM Hospital said, "We stock A+ and B+ blood in the blood banks and there is no excessive shortage as per the complaints. We have at least 200 blood units in stock. On Wednesday, there was some shortage of blood bags but we conducted blood camps to overcome the shortage. Sometimes, due to a holiday, people don't come to donate blood so there was only few stock available."

Meanwhile Harendra Pandey, a resident of Bihar whose wife is admitted at the hospital and was in need of B+ blood on Wednesday, said, "The doctors asked us to arrange for B+ blood from other blood banks as it was not available with them. I purchased one unit of B+ blood from JJ Hospital's blood bank at Rs 1,000."

An official from the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) said, "We haven't received any complaints regarding the shortage of blood. We have been getting updates on stocks from blood banks regularly."