Mumbai: Three blood banks will remain suspended till Nov 7, after inspections by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found discrepancies and violations such as unauthorised supply of blood, improper storage, lack of disinfection measures and improper documentation. This also includes a public-private partnership (PPP) blood bank at Cooper Hospital which was suspended for five days initially and a three-day reduction was provided after an appeal.
Hospital authorities said for the next three days, they will be relying on the blood bank at Trauma Hospital in Jogeshwari. Hospital officials told TOI that it is possible that in the event of a shortage at their own blood bank, patients may have taken blood from these two but clarified that no adverse event has been recorded so far. A review of internal documents shows that at Samarpan Blood Bank, “blood was supplied to Surya Hospital’s blood storage centre without an agreement or licensing authority approval. Moreover, positive blood bags were not disinfected with hypochlorite. Both the blood banks are in close proximity to BMC-run Rajawadi Hospital.
Cooper Hospital blood bank is run by Samarprit Bahuddeshiya Sevabhavi Vikas Sanstha and the services were suspended throughout Thursday and will remain suspended on Friday with permission to resume on Sunday.