Bandipora, Oct 9: The doctors and patients in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district are finally going to have some respite as the District Hospital Bandipora is set to make the blood bank functional within days.
“All the machinery has been set up and the blood bank is going to start functioning in Bandipora,” Medical Superintendent Dr Mushtaq Ahmad told Greater Kashmir.
Admitting that the absence of the facility was dearly felt and had been a long and persistent problem for the patients in need of blood, the MS said, “The problem of not having a blood bank was felt for a very long time.”
Dr Ahmad said that Bandipora being far from Srinagar, it took nearly two hours for the referral patients to reach Srinagar. This used to be problematic for doctors, patients and the family.
He said that almost the entire machinery was provided by the World Bank which had been installed and all formalities done.
“Now we can go for blood transfusion and also store blood. The good news is that the facility will act as a parent blood bank for hospitals in other areas of the district like Sumbal, Hajin and Gurez,” Dr Ahmad said.
He said that with the blood bank, the referral rates from the hospital would come down.
About the manpower Dr Ahmad said, “We have three trained medical officers and laboratory technicians and with the license issue also resolved, the government will be providing extra manpower and there won’t be issues related to it anymore.”