Ranchi: Guddi Devi of Jhalda in Purulia district of Bengal has been visiting RIMS regularly for the past four days to procure blood for her six-year-old son Vishwajeet Kumar who is suffering from thalassemia.

Nitu Jha of Bihar's Bhagalpur district spends lakhs for the treatment of her thalassemic daughter.

Like Guddi and Nitu, several people from the state and outside suffering from inherited blood disorders can finally heave a sigh of relief.

A day care integrated centre for thalassemia, sickle cell anaemia and haemophilia was inaugurated at Ranchi Sadar Hospital on Wednesday.

State health minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi along with health secretary Nidhi Khare and other officials were present on the occasion.

A portion of the paediatric ward of sadar hospital has been converted into the day care centre, which is a joint initiative of state health department and Jharkhand Thalassemia Foundation.

"The centre was a long-standing demand. Sadar hospital has provided space and our doctors will provide free treatment," said Ranchi civil surgeon Dr S.S. Harijan.

Secretary of the thalassemia foundation Atul Gera said the treatment of thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia would be their top priority.

"Life expectancy of a thalassemia patient in Jharkhand is around 10 years; so, children are the prime target for medical care. We have enrolled 100 patients so far. We do not have any concrete data of patients suffering from thalassemia in the state, but we believe the number is close to 7,000," added Gera.

He further said that the foundation would deploy at least two resource persons to fix appointment of patients, arrange blood for them and other related work.

"Currently, there are six beds at the centre but we will soon double the number," said Gera.

Besides the day care centre, a blood bank, a mother care unit for premature babies and digital X-ray machine were also launched on Wednesday.