NEW DELHI, Jun 23: Hundreds of youths came to donate blood at the blood donation camp, organised by the Naga Students Union Delhi (NSUD) in collaboration with the NGO Helping Hands, to augment the North East blood bank of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.
Founding chairman of Helping Hands and Delhi Inspector General, Robin Hibu said that the purpose of the NE blood bank is to see to it that no patient from the North East dies due to want of blood in any hospital at Delhi.
He appreciated the new NSUD team led by its president Lukiang and the Helping Hands team led by its vice president Dr Sangeeta Chanu for their hard work, and AIIMS blood bank HOD Dr Poonam Coshic, Dr Neha Bedi, Dr Dipti Ranjan and other members of the blood bank for their assistance.
He also thanked the health minister of Nagaland for sponsoring refreshment and travel expenditures of blood donors.
However, the IG informed that private hospitals in Delhi, such as Apollo, Max and Fortis, do not accept blood from AIIMS NE blood bank. They also charge Rs 10,000 approximately for a unit of blood from their hospital’s blood bank, he added.
“I receive daily complaints from NE people in Delhi and NCR. This refusal of blood from AIIMS by private hospitals is incurring huge unnecessary expenditure for poor NE patients”, the IG added.
Underprivileged NE patients in need of blood in Delhi can send SMS/ Whatsapp with patient name, hospital, bed number to Helping Hands on 9810083486.
For Naga patients in need of blood, one can contact the NSUD president at 9643867530.
