A blood component separator machine has been installed at Paras HMRI Hospital, taking the number of such devices to seven in Patna.

Ravishankar Singh, general manager, Paras HMRI Hospital, said: “We installed the blood component separator machine on May 17 after receiving the licence for blood bank. The installation would ensure delivery of safer blood to people. Our bank would only provide blood after the ECi testing, which helps diagnose the quantity of antibodies. In Patna, blood is being tested by Elisa Card testing method.”

However, the government and private hospitals in other districts lack such machines. “The primary health centres, sub-divisional hospitals and district hospitals should have blood component separator machines. As the block and district-level healthcare institutions don’t have these machines, they refer most of the blood disorder or loss cases to us,” said V.P. Sinha, head, medicine department, Patna Medical College and Hospital.

Commenting on the advantages of such machines, Sinha said: “A blood component separator machine is very useful in cases like blood disorder and blood loss. This helps to separate the various components of the blood, including red blood corpuscles, platelets and white blood corpuscles. Each component could be used for different purposes.”

He explained that in blood disorder cases, only plasma is needed; in dengue, only platelets are required and in anaemia, red blood corpuscles. “Therefore, patients suffering from blood disorders, anaemia or dengue don’t need to be given the whole blood. They need to be given the particular components of the blood. So, we can use one unit of blood for four different kinds of patients.”

There is one each at Patna Medical College and Hospital, Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, Mahavir Cancer Sansthan, Kurji Holy Family Hospital, Patna branch of Indian Red Cross Society and Jai Prabha Blood Bank, Kankerbagh.