Let us see what December had in store for us at Sankalp.
Emergency Wing
With most of the request getting handled at the Disha helpline, the emergency team handled 26 emergency requests this month out of which 14 were for negative groups. Interestingly, more half of these requests were from outside Bangalore.
In general there was a decline in the demand for platelets, so the forecasts for coming months are likely to be good, as far as platelets is concerned. Additionally, the team received 3 Bombay Blood Group requests seeking multiple units.
Disha
Over the past few months, Disha had observed several rounds of changes. With the employee coming in, taking blood stocks and help-line management have become far more stable and streamlined than before. The team had sent awareness materials to over 400 hospitals in October, the result of which was seen by December. Even though the summer shortage season was over, the call volume on help-line did not take the expected plunge.
It was observed that Disha receives huge number of calls from several districts like Hubli-Dharwad, Gulbarga, Belgaum, Mysore, Bijapur, Davanagere and Raichur. While, the helpline received surprisingly low calls from districts like Bellary, Tumkur, Bagalkot, where blood shortage has been observed in the past and was well expected this summer as well. That brought the team to better plan and strategise awareness in these selected districts.
Additionally, December also witnessed the integration of SMS gateway with the blood help-line. This will enable the help-line to send automated SMS to callers with blood bank name and number along with necessary instructions. Currently the SMS’s can be sent to all numbers not listed in DND (Do not disturb) directory. The team, alongside the Sankalp Tech team is working on getting the SMS gateway up and running for all numbers. This change is expected to get through by the end of January.
Rakta Kranti
i) Applied Materials: The month of December started with a drive in Applied Materials on 3rd December. Applied is the organization that has always supported the cause of voluntary blood donation. In the winter shortage period, 73 people donated blood and ensured accessibility of safe blood to the needy.
ii) CGI: A series of camps was organized in CGI on 5th and 11th Dec. As always, there was great support from the company at all the locations. People were so enthusiastic to donate blood that they were ready to wait more than 90 mins in some cases. These camps also saw a high percentage of rejections on medical grounds. 234 people came forward for the cause and 144 units were collected in CGI, Technopolis, Electronic City. On the same day, a camp was held in CGI, Cyber Park, Electronic City. 85 units were collected in the camp.
On 11th, a camp was organized in CGI, Yemlur location. 177 units were collected in the camp providing a huge relief to the city. The units collected in these camps were distributed to different blood banks across the city.
iii) Aircel: Aircel organized a blood donation drive on 6th December. Even though the space was small and very few people work in this company, the participation was extremely good. A total of 35 people came forward to donate and 29 units of blood collected, which translates to more than one-third of the employees participating in the event.
iv) Microland: A first Sankalp drive was organized in Microland on 13th December. Camp saw a good turnout of donors. 32 units of blood were collected in the camp. The drive was planned in only 2 days and a better planning can ensure better publicity resulting in better donor motivation and turnout.
v) ITPB: A 2 day camp was organized in ITPL with the support of Ascendas and Applied Materials on 16th, 17th Dec. The response in these camps was way below average. Several factors can be contributed to this including a recent camp organized by HDFC. Seeing the low turnout, volunteers applied a strategy where one volunteer was doing only publicity full day on both the days. This increased the number of units collected. 185 units were collected in 2 days.
vi) Indigo: A second blood donation drive was organized in Indigo at Bangalore International Airport on 17th December. Donors were very enthusiastic and were willing to wait. However, due to fog and flight delays the total number of units collected was 25.
vii) AMD: AMD is one of the few organizations which conducts a blood donation drive once every 4 months. Twelfth blood donation drive was organized in AMD on 18th December. As always, there was a continuous rush of donors and several regular donors came forward. 89 units of blood were collected in the event.
viii) Icon: Second blood donation drive was organized in Icon on 18th December. This time people from other companies did not participate in the event. Also, the camp saw many rejections due to low hb. 29 units were collected in the camp.
Thalassemia
The new year celebrations come with a price for the children suffering from thalassemia. In the last 2 weeks of December there are hardly any blood donation drives in the city leading to a temporary but prominent shortage of blood. The Rakta Kranti team had scheduled to organise blood donation drives through till the end of 2013 but there were quite a few instances of organisers insisting on postponing drives to January. Consequently, maintaining blood supply was a challenge. The exceptional support from Rashtrotthana blood bank to support most children from I.G.I.C.H. day care through the shortage period was commendable. Equally commendable was the response of our call for walk in donation. Several live savers walked into the blood banks during the last fortnight to donate blood and help fight shortage. Hats off to you!
Thanks to the hard work of the team at the Samraksha day care center, there has been considerable progress with the baseline pre-transfusion hemoglobin for children. When the center started, the hemoglobin level was approximately 5 gm/dl on an average. Today it stands above 8.5gm/dl. Having taken care of transfusion needs the next step at Samraksha is to initiate chelation.
An important aspect of systematic management of thalassemia is reliable lab reports. Both the day care centers are catering to patients who are unable to afford any kind of medical tests and hence the centers have taken the responsibility. December month was spent to figure out a cost effective, yet highly reliable mechanism to get lab tests done for all the children. Some silver lining after months of struggle streamline medical investigations is in sight. If all goes well, we will have a robust system in place for cost effective and reliable medical investigations for management as well as prevention of thalassemia by Republic .
Organising for chelation for the children has been the most difficult challenge. We are looking for individuals and organisation who are willing to help provide the crucial medication for the children.