Bharatpur facing blood shortage

Bharatpur which is known as the 'medical city' of Nepal is facing a shortage of blood these days. It is the major problem for the relatives of patients at various hospitals in the city.

The Regional Blood Transfusion Centre of Nepal Red Cross Society is based in Bharatpur. The relatives of patients in need of blood are having a hard time looking for potential donors as the Centre has run out of blood supply.

Nearly 5,000 donors are said to donate blood coming to the Centre in a year. They are the donors who are called for donating blood at the request of the relatives of the patients.

Patients from around 20 districts come to the various hospitals and medical centres in Bharatpur for treatment. Blood is in high demand for the patients at the BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital and those patients requiring specialist care at other hospitals in the city.

Regional Blood Transfusion Centre Chief Ramesh Kant Poudel said there is high demand for blood for surgeries and other medical treatments at Cancer Hospital, the Bharatpur Hospital, two medical college hospitals and more than 20 big and small hospitals.

As he said, the Centre has been providing around 35,000 units of blood throughout the year whereas the demand exceeds 50,000 units. Poudel shared that the shortage of blood has resulted in the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) which runs the Centre has not been able to carry out incentivizing programmes for the donors.

According to him, the NRCS is working in the same old style and failed to carry out new strategic activities for motivating the donors. The NRCS has not been able to carry out works in coordination with the government bodies, Poudel said.

The Centre has been collecting blood by collaborating with Chitwan and neighbouring districts. The centre used to collect blood from Gorkha, Lamjung, Tanahu, Dhading, Makawanpur, Sarlahi and Rautahat districts.

A blood donation programme is organised around 400 times in the district throughout the year. Earlier, around 100-150 unit of blood used to be collected from such blood donation programmes but only 40-50 units is collected nowadays.

Chitwan chapter president of Nepal Red Cross Society, Gyanshali Neupane, said the problem has surfaced due to a decrease in blood collection. Neupane accepted that the Society could not organise programmes encouraging blood donors like felicitation for the past two years due to COVID-19.

It was necessary to increase public awareness from the ward level saying the problem would be resolved to some extent if a member of a family donates blood, added Neupane.

She shared they used to supply the blood as per the demand by bringing it from different places including Jhapa, Pokhara and Bhairahawa.

Chairperson of Bharatpur Hospital Development Committee, Dr Bhojraj Adhikari, said a big problem of blood shortage would be surfaced in future if a plan could not be made on time to manage blood.

He opined that it was necessary to prepare a large group of volunteers to educate the general people about the importance of blood, adding different organisations working for social service have to keep blood donation programmes in their annual programme thinking of social responsibility.

 Adhikari argued the blood shortage could not be reduced unless people at the grassroots level are encouraged to understand the importance of blood.