Guwahati, Nov 7: The Assam government has, in a bid to achieve 100 per cent voluntary blood donations, decided to provide mobile blood donation vans to all district civil hospitals and medical colleges in the state.
Announcing this after flagging off five mobile blood vans from Janata Bhawan here on Tuesday, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “All district civil hospitals and medical colleges will be provided mobile voluntary blood donation vans”.
It may be mentioned that the state government had, in the year 2019-20, bought 11 mobile blood donation vans.
“With the addition of these five vans today, the scale of voluntary blood donations in the state will be increased. It will also help poor patients receive required blood during an emergency,” the chief minister said.
“All the voluntary blood donation vans put together have been able to accumulate 10,886 units of blood during the COVID pandemic,” he said.
Sarma further informed that during the current financial year, five more mobile vans would be procured and pressed into service.
It may be noted that in the year 2022-23, the Assam State Blood Transfusion Council with the aid received from state government and National Health Mission (NHM), Assam purchased five mobile blood donation vans for Rs 4.43 crore. Of this, Rs 2.07 crore was given by the state government while the remaining amount of Rs 2.27 crore was received from NHM.
“One each of these vans will be deployed at Kokrajhar Medical College and Hospital, Guwahati Medical College and Hospital, S.M. Dev Civil Hospital in Cachar, Mangaldoi Civil Hospital in Darrang district, and Sivasagar Civil Hospital in Sivasagar district,” Sarma said.
“These vans will be pressed into service in the far-flung areas to sensitise people about voluntary blood donations and achieve the target of 100 percent voluntary blood donations,” he added.
