Blood Bank Services

If you have been told your patient needs blood

Tell the nurse on the ward that you have been told, and ask what has already been ordered. The treating doctor writes the request, a sample from your patient goes to the blood bank, and each unit is matched against that sample before it is issued. That matching is why a unit is not handed over the moment it is asked for, even when the blood bank has the group in stock.

If your patient is in theatre or in intensive care, the team arranges blood without you having to do anything. Ask the nurse to tell you straight away if donors will be needed, so that you are not finding out at the last hour.

If you are not in the building, call +91 40 4699 9999 and ask for the blood bank.

• Ask how many units, and which component
• Ask whether your family will be asked to arrange replacement donors, and by when
• Ask whether each unit will be billed with replacement or without

With replacement and without replacement

These two phrases turn up on hospital bills all over India and are rarely explained. They describe how a unit is accounted for, not what is in it. The blood is the same either way, and it is matched to your patient the same way either way.

Without replacement means the unit comes out of the blood bank's stock and nobody donates against it.

With replacement means somebody, usually a relative or a friend of the patient, gives blood to the blood bank against the unit the patient received. That donation does not go into your patient's arm. It goes back into the stock the unit came out of.

This blood bank issues units both ways, and the two are billed under separate heads, so the phrase printed on your bill tells you which one applied to each unit. A transfusion is usually billed in two parts as well: the component itself, and a charge for giving it.

What the blood bank will ask of your family, and what each option costs, is not something this page can tell you. Ask at the blood bank, and ask on the first day rather than at discharge.

What the blood bank supplies

A single donation is separated into components, so that a patient is given only the part they need and one donation can serve more than one patient. The doctor decides which component and how many units.

• Packed red cells, the component used for most transfusions
• Fresh frozen plasma
• Random donor platelets, pooled from more than one donation
• Single donor platelets, collected from one donor by plateletpheresis

Giving blood

You can give blood at the hospital's blood bank. You are registered, asked about your health and any recent illness, checked by the blood bank's medical officer and given a haemoglobin test before anything is taken. The medical officer can tell you not to donate that day. That decision is for your safety as much as the patient's.

If you are giving blood for one particular patient, say so before you register, and carry the patient's name and hospital number with you.

Platelets can also be given by plateletpheresis, where the platelets are separated out and the rest of your blood is returned to you as the donation goes on. It takes longer than giving whole blood and has its own rules. It is worth asking about, because platelets keep for only a few days and single donor platelets are usually collected for a patient who needs them now.

Call +91 40 4699 9999 and ask for the blood bank before you come in, so that you arrive when the counter is open.

• The national rules for blood donation in India: aged 18 to 65
• Weighing at least 45 kg
• Haemoglobin of at least 12.5 g/dL
• Well on the day, with no fever or infection
• At least three months since your last whole blood donation

Testing before a unit is issued

Every unit is grouped and screened before it can be issued, and it is cross-matched against a sample from the patient who will receive it. The screening required of licensed blood centres in India covers HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis and malaria.

The testing laboratory runs round the clock and covers 2,500 square feet. The analysers report into the laboratory information system, and units and samples are identified by bar code. The blood bank works to its own internal quality parameters and takes part in external quality assessment programmes.