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Prathama Blood Centre - Ahmedabad

GenesisThe state of blood banks in India led to the genesis of Prathama Blood Centre. Blood banks inIndia were characterized with the following features:1. Small scale in terms of operation, poor infrastructure, economically unstable and lack of hygiene.2. Acute shortage of blood and dependence on replacement donors.3. No awareness and use of blood components.4. Part of the hospital.5. No concept of Societal Marketing.6. Mistrust and corruption related image.7. Lack of Management systems and expertise.8. Quality of testing questionable.

Based on the above gaps, the objective of Prathama Blood Centre was set with the mission to setup a blood bank for the city of Ahmedabad & its vicinity, which will meet the requirement of safeblood components of assured quality, at all the times, to every needy patient, only throughvoluntary blood donors and not through replacement.

Prathama Blood Centre is the result of ATRMF (Advanced Transfusion Medicine ResearchFoundation), a not for profit, section 25 company which also happens to be a trust. Prathama wasconceptualized in the late 90s to cater to social issues and help modernise the blood bankinginfrastructure in India. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation gives this plot to ATMRF on 99year lease basis. For the patients admitted in the Municipal Corporation Hospital, the bloodcomponents will have to be provided at discount of 30% than the rates for normal patients and fora poor patient of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's hospital blood components upto the extentof 10% should be provided free of charge.

Prathama was planned to provide adequate and rugged infrastructure to enable collection, processand distribution of 50,000 units of blood per annum. The blood centre has been designed toexpand in a modular manner to collect process and distribute 1.50,000 units of blood per annum.The objective was to create a modern blood bank, which operates with efficiency, accuracy of themodern blood banks in the developed countries, but still at the cost which a developing countrieseconomy can meet. The blood centre should also produce very high quality blood components atcost very similar to the blood units, which were available in India. All such objectives paved wayfor the creation of Prathama Blood Centre costing Rs.7.5 crores with the final products to costanywhere between Rs.450/- to Rs.650/- (refer table 1 in appendix). This required indigenousdesign and development of technology and systems. For example, Prathama has its owncustomized ERP based system called Vyan. This system integrates various processes within theorganization for better and faster work. All modules including that of blood donor information,Marketing, HRM have been integrated by this unique system.

A Special word on Prathama’s Inspiring InfrastructureProviding services for blood collection, storage and research, Prathama Blood Centre inAhmedabad, regional capital of Gujarat, attracted the jurors’ attention as an example of a largeand quite complex building in the developing world. Designed by local practice MatharooAssociates (whose Kahnian crematorium featured in the 2003 awards cycle, AR December 2003),the blood centre is conceived as a pioneering new type of health building (prathama means ‘First’in Sanskrit) that combines sophisticated laboratory and testing facilities with an enlightened,humanistic approach. The centre is the outcome of a competition staged by a charitable trust withthe aim of recasting and restaging the act of blood donation in a more inviting public domain, somitigating the fear and repulsion subconsciously associated with such public spiritedness. Thenew building can store and process 200 000 units of blood, making it the largest blood

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bank in India. Donations are entirely voluntary, and the centre’s on-site facilities are backed upby a fleet of mobile collection units. Despite the programme’s ambitions, the budget wasparsimonious ($200 per sqm, including. t out and site development). Costs were kept in check bycustom designing and locally fabricating internal elements such as doors, windows, modularfurniture, partitions and work stations. Even so, Matharoo Associates have succeeded in making abuilding that has an evident decency and dignity. A four-storey glass-clad stack of laboratoriesintersects roughly at right angles with a hermetic concrete volume housing administration andsupport services. Between these clearly articulated functional elements is a more free-form atriumspace, created by stretching and curving the concrete wall. Contained within this concrete skin atground level are user-friendly enclaves for blood collection (separated from the more clinicalblocks), so that people can just wander in and make a donation. To encourage a regularthroughput of donors, there are none of the formalities and inhibitions of a formal hospital setting.Helping to soothe nerves, the donation suite overlooks a tranquil reflecting pool, while within theatrium there are views and glimpses through to the more specialised laboratory spaces,communicating a sense of the building’s gravitas and wider social purpose. Refer figures 1-4 inappendix.

HighlightsThey have a well-balanced rugged infrastructure to support operations of blood collection, bloodprocessing and blood distribution. These 3 functions are well supported by an inspiringlydesigned space, equipment, trained personnel, and systems besides a good culture. Refer table100% componentisation of blood: At Prathama, whole blood is separated into components - thusensuring that the patient gets only that component which he/she needs. This means that withevery unit of blood collected Prathama is able to fulfill the requirements of 4 different patients.100% voluntary donation - Prathama is mandated to give blood to whoever needs it, wheneverthey need, there is absolutely no replacement requirement. This unique feature (Prathama is theonly blood bank that can justifiably claim that it accepts only voluntary donations) has given riseto a Social Marketing initiative, through which Prathama is engaged in mass awarenesscampaigns. There is also a focused effort to develop repeat donors as repeat donations enrich thequality of blood. In the long run, Prathama Blood Centre aims to be an integral part ofAhmedabad and its milieu. Prathama feels that the Citizens of Ahmedabad should believe theyown it and consider it is one of their social responsibilities to donate blood at Prathama, and useits facilities whenever they are in need.

Prathama is the pioneer of Societal Marketing in blood banking in India. As a part of its SocialMarketing initiatives, Prathama is extensively involved in doctor awareness through its CMEprogrammes. Prathama is a pioneer in the area of blood components and is making every effort togenerate greater clarity and knowledge about the benefits of using components in the medicalcommunity. Prathama has a team of donor consultants who visit organizations, institutions,different segments of the society and are engaged in campaigning and collection of blood.

Prathama also has a call centre which interacts with past donors and arranges mobile van drivesi.e. use of ultra modern blood mobile vans in different parts of the city and state. The call centrealso keys in new donors in the existing list of donors besides handing grievances. Prathama alsohas its own in -house studio which designs posters, stickers, banners based on specific themesrelated to blood campaigning. Prathama also offers door step delivery services. In case ofemergency, a team of service providers pick up blood samples, and deliver the products to thepatients.

At Prathama, safety is paramount. Because blood is accepted only from voluntary donors, the riskfactor is considerably reduced. To further ensure the safety of blood, they have invested in stateof the art machines that check for every conceivable contamination and disease. With theirinfrastructure and rigorous testing procedure, every recipient is sure that the blood he/she receives

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is 100% safe. As a part of its efforts to modernise blood banking, Prathama has invested inrobotic testing facilities, a real time fully integrated computer network, ERP software and barcode system. It is the largest blood bank of the country, with the infrastructure and technicalcapability to process 300,000 units per annum.Although professional, Prathama is a ‘not for profit’ organization. Moderate service charge, asper Govt. guidelines is taken to sustain the cost of operation, raw materials, testing, etc. Thisservice charge is standardized, with no hidden cost whatsoever. There are special commitmentsfor poor patients, Haemophilliacs & Thalassaemic patients. The blood centre is a 24 hrs-365 daysopen blood centre and serves the society round the clock. Prathama has been involved inpromoting voluntary blood donation right from its inception. The demand for blood has been veryhigh among patients suffering from haemophilia and thalassaemia. Nowadays, Prathama alsoprovides 70 to 75 platelets everyday required for countering dengue, as this disease, too, hasspread across the city.

At Prathama, professionals from different facets like medical, management, finance, IT, creativearts, HR, etc. have come together with the vision to contribute towards blood banking in India,offer quality with affordability in providing safe blood components and services to patients, freeof cost, actively promote blood donation as a social responsibility of every healthy individual andcontribute to our discipline through research, education and development of human resource andbe amongst the most renowned centres of transfusion medicine in the world.

Today, Prathama is the largest blood bank in India and is a model blood bank in Ahmedabadhaving collected blood from nearly 2.0 lakh donors and has distributed more than 3.0 lakh bloodcomponents serving more than 1.5 lakh patients in the process. Prathama is also involved inextensive research in the field of blood related disorders and optimal uitlisation of human blood.Prathama is classified as a “Transfusion Medicine Centre” as assigned ‘Grade A’ by CRISIL.Prathama also conducts DNB program.

Future OutlookIn a large country like India, efficient blood banking requires around 30-40 big regional bloodcentres. Prathama aims to facilitate the setting up of Modern Regional Blood Centres that aretruly world class, economical and provide safe blood components to meet the requirements ofblood of the entire region. The need is to set up a nation wide network of regional blood centres,that are capable of collecting, processing, testing, storing and distributing 1,00,000 to 5,00,000units of blood per annum. The location of the Regional Blood Centres depends on the populationand geographic distribution of its healthcare cities. The regional centres would be supplementedby satellite blood centers in the surrounding towns

source:

Research Paper:Modern Blood Banking in India: A Study of Prathama Blood CentreAbhinava S. SinghDr. Siddharth G. Das

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