Safe Blood Transfusion – Key To Quality Healthcare

Dr Shyama S Nagarajan

Author: Dr Kabita Chatterjee and Lt Col Alok Sen
Publisher: Jaypee Brothers
Pages: 323
Price: Rs 495

Raktabiij – an asura described in our epics glorified the value of blood as he was blessed with the ability to have a clone generated automatically with every drop of his blood that touches the ground. If we translate this story to modern medicine, blood constitutes the lifeline of human body, and can generate life in a moribund soul. With nearly 13 million annual unscreened blood transfusions, 95 per cent of blood transfusions in India were deemed unsafe by researchers from Northwestern University. The WHO estimated that 80 per cent of global population living in developing world have access to only 20 per cent of safe blood. Therefore, safety of blood transfusion is key to delivery of quality of patient care.

However, the blood bank sector in the country is constrained by certain factors like inadequate implementation of the required licensing criteria, absence of a system for continuous monitoring of the service delivered by licensed blood banks, operationalisation of unauthorised blood banks, and absence of a nation-wide network of blood banks.

While evaluating the blood banks as a part of our grading exercise and as a part of the Blood Bank Accreditation Programme (offered by ICRA in collaboration with NACO), we realised that there is an ardent need for practical knowledge on the clinical and technical aspects of blood transfusion services. It was also observed that with the modernisation of blood transfusion services in many institutes, the medical education in transfusion services have also gone high tech. However, we in India have the challenge to operate in extreme scenarios, with pockets where modernisation has not set its feet, but diseases are ubiquitous and doctors are required to offer quality services in extreme circumstances as well.

This book, I must say, is timed rightly and the author has shared the crux of her rich experience of 24 years in blood transfusion services detailing and offering clarifications in the practically-encountered problems while ensuring blood safety in transfusion medicine.

This book targets both the technical officers who handle/prepare blood and blood products and the patient’s advocates – the clinicians who are users of the blood transfusion services. In this book, the author clearly and lucidly, in simple language offers details both on the conventional and modern methods of blood banking procedures. The book is well-structured and illustrated with pictures to make reading and working easy. It has 16 chapters that are small, as it is written point wise with short sentences to have a pocketsize book handy to carry. It also has a CD-Rom to maintain the soft copy of the book in your PC.

The book focuses on many of the day-to-day problems and issues while handling donors, handling blood and its products, which are key to ensure safety of blood issued to the recipients. From the clinicians’ perspective, the book highlights the rational use of blood, the transfusion reactions possible, the precautions required to avoid such incidences, and enumerates key points to manage them. From the students’ perspective, the authors have also taken care to illustrate the conventional methods of blood banking service, which is a good learning exercise and prepares a medical graduate or postgraduate to work in extreme circumstances as well.

The book is written by two doctors: a pathologist who has served all her life as the faculty, Blood Transfusion Services, AIIMS. The other is a medical officer (Lt Col) in the Indian Army, where innovation comes naturally to all while handling medical problems in remote corners of the country in unfavourable circumstances. The vast and rich experience of the authors makes this book a must read for all the stakeholders who handle blood and its products in some form or the other.

The contents of the book justify the title of the book ‘A practical manual’. The size and colour of the book makes it look like a novel and reads in the same way. A wish list for future editions is addition of chapters on quality issues, equipment calibration and some newer technologies like cord transfusion, artificial blood to make the book comprehensive and a good reading experience.

The Writer heads the Healthcare Grading Services at ICRA Ltd.
Email: shyama@icraindia.com