The government would soon introduce a new legislation that would lay down standards of quality and safety of human blood and of blood components, in order to ensure a high level of human health protection and to prevent transmission of diseases. It would help regulate the collection and testing of human blood and blood components, whatever their intended purpose, and to their processing, storage, and distribution when intended for transfusion.
The proposed legislation “The Islamabad Safe Blood Transfusion Bill, 2010” has been drafted for implementation in Islamabad Capital Territory. The Draft Legislation was prepared by the National Blood Transfusion Programme and submitted to the Ministry of Health for further approval. Now the Ministry of law is vetting and giving final shape to the proposed bill which would be tabled before the cabinet for its approval. The Draft Legislation has also been shared with the provinces for an enactment through the respective provincial assemblies.
Federal government may, by notification in the official Gazette, establish an authority to be known as the Islamabad Blood Transfusion Authority (IBTA) which would register and issue licenses to blood centres and hospital blood banks in the Islamabad Capital Territory and in territories where the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction. It would ensure that bio-safety measures specified by the authority are strictly adhered to by the blood centres and hospital blood banks and that the blood centres and hospital blood banks are managed and run by qualified professionals preferably having post graduate qualifications.
