A monitoring committee of the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority (SBTA) has sealed another blood bank operating within the premises of the Medicomplex Hospital located in North Nazimabad over charges of working illegally and not being registered with the SBTA.
The monitoring committee comprises SBTA officials, including Dr Ismail Memon, Kulsoom Karim and Nazir Ahmed, and is headed by SBTA Secretary Dr Zahid Ansari.
They removed the signboards of the Life Guard Voluntary Blood Bank and handed over the building to the hospital authorities.
With the closure of this blood bank, the total number of illegal blood banks in the province that have been sealed so far comes to 127.
“The blood bank that we have sealed had applied for registration, but its case is lying pending with the SBTA, but before we could register it, the blood bank started providing mega units in clear violation of the blood transfusion laws. Therefore, we raided the facility and sealed it,” said Ansari.
The SBTA record reveals that around 148 blood banks are officially registered with the SBTA in all 23 districts of the province.
“There are large numbers of illegal and unregistered blood banks working in the province, and since we have launched a campaign against these blood banks, many of them were closed by the operators themselves. However, some of them also applied for registration, but before we could issue them their registration, most of them started operating, so we are going to seal these illegal blood banks,” Ansari added.
Though the blood bank was sealed, no fine has been imposed as the SBTA laws state that any person found guilty of running illegal and unregistered blood banks would be fined Rs 500,000 and could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.
“After the raid, the owner surrendered voluntarily. Therefore, we have issued him a notice and if he still continues to run his blood bank, we will arrest him and impose a fine on him or initiate legal proceeding s against him,” Ansari concluded.
Blood Transfusion Authority seals one more illegal blood bank
