14 new blood banks to come up across West Bengal

West Bengal government will come up with 14 new blood banks to meet the requirement in rural areas, a senior official in the Health Department said.
"In the districts, there are not many blood banks to meet the requirement in the rural areas. For this reason, the state government has decided to come up with 14 new blood banks in those areas," the official said.
The districts of Bankura, Jalpaiguri, West and East Midnapore, Murshidabad, Coochbehar and South 24 Parganas have been identified where the blood banks would be set up, he said.
Three blood banks would be set up in Bankura's Chatna, Onda and Barjara block primary health centres, while one would be set up at Jalpaiguri's Falakata block primary health centre, the official said.

West Midnapore would get four blood banks at Salboni, Debra, Nayagram, Gopiballabhpur Grameen Hospital, while East Midnapore would have two at Nandigram zilla hospital and Pashkura block primary school, he said.
Besides, one each at Murshidabad's Sagardighi Grameen Hospital and South 24 Parganas' Metiaburuz Hospital there would be two blood banks at Coochbehar in Dinhata and Mathabhanga mahakuma hospitals, the official said.

The Central Blood Bank and the five other blood banks in the city have been serving people of Kolkata and the surrounding districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly all these years, he said.

A total of 210 vacancies have been created for the new blood banks and the proposal has got the state government's nod.
For each blood bank, there would be three officers and four technicians to run the operations initially, another source at the Health Department said while stressing on several posts at blood banks lying vacant for a long time.
Asked when the blood banks would be ready, the official said, "We are working on the preliminary requirements for these banks and if everything goes according to our plans, we hope to finish this by 2017."
Meanwhile, sources at the health department said the state government also has plans to upgrade 40 of its hospitals to multi-specialty hospitals.

Apart from Bangur Hospital in the city, several primary block hospitals have been identified for upgradation, the official added.