Hospital employee caught ‘stealing’ blood
Specialised Healthcare Secretary Najam Ahmad Shah directed the authorities concerned that registration of public blood banks should be completed in seven days. He said health EDOs would be assigned duties for the purpose. PHOTO: AFP
A security guard caught an employee of the blood bank of the Allied Hospital who had allegedly been taking 12 bags of blood out of the hospital and handed him over to the hospital administration.
The medical superintendent had ordered an investigation into the matter.
According to details, a security guard caught an employee of the blood bank of the Allied Hospital while the suspect had been allegedly taking bags of different blood groups outside the hospital. The Director of Emergency, Afzal Ahmed Cheema, was informed about the incident.
Later, the suspect was taken to the office of the Medical Superintendent of the Allied Hospital, Faheem Yusuf, with the bags of blood.
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A news item published on these pages in March this year said that the Institute of Blood Transfusion Services had failed to ensure availability of the facility for needy patients because of alleged theft of blood from the hospitals for sale.
Sale of blood appears to have become a common practice in the provincial capital amid its unavailability in the blood banks of hospitals. The blood banks are run under the supervision of officials of the Institute of Blood Transfusion Services.
According to hospital sources, families of the patients are required to approach the hospital blood banks to prepare for transfusion needed during surgery, but an increasing number of them complain that they are forced to buy blood. It is suspected that employees serving in the blood banks gather details of patients requiring transfusion in the big private hospitals in the city and deliver the blood through their agents in return for money.
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A case of blood theft was recently [March 2023] registered at the Civil Lines police station, in which an employee of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital was nominated, He was suspected of involvement in theft and sale of blood bags.
After the incident, the provincial health department advised the hospital administrations to take measures to stop theft of the blood donated by citizens.
The complainant stated that 49 stolen blood bags had been recovered from the employee.
The employee nominated in the case was arrested and he revealed during the investigation of the existence of a network involved in the crime. He reportedly told the investigators that his accomplices supplied stolen blood to the patients needing it inside and outside the hospitals.
Police investigators said the arrested suspect also confessed to having delivered blood to private hospitals.
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Punjab Specialised Healthcare Department spokesman Sayed Hamad Raza told The Express Tribune that the department had immediately taken notice of the incident of blood theft at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
“We immediately constituted an inquiry committee, lodged a case and ensured the arrest of the suspect as the department will never allow theft of blood from the blood banks,” he added.
The sources said complaints of unavailability of blood had been received from almost all big government hospitals in the provincial capital, including the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Mayo Hospital, Lahore General Hospital, Government Nawaz Sharif Hospital and Services Hospital.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2023.