Blood distribution may grind to a complete halt due to the acute shortage of reagents to check the presence of infectious diseases such as HIV AIDS, Hepatitis B and C, Syphilis and Malaria in the relevant blood sample, a spokesperson for the blood transfusion centre said.
The Ministry of Health owes 300 million rupees to the supplier of reagents for the last eight months. The supplier demanded at least 100 million rupees to resume supplies.
The spokesperson said that nearly 1400 pints of blood are supplied to the hospital daily. However, if the samples tests stop, the blood supply to the hospital will grind to a complete halt
Meanwhile, on inquiry, the Director of our Blood Transfusion Center, Dr Laxman Edirisinghe said that the Blood Transfusion Center is in a serious predicament. We will take every possible step to settle the money owed to the supplier as soon as possible.
The director warned that blood cannot be distributed if tests for blood-borne diseases are halted.
