RCS gives 1,002 units of blood free of cost to Govt Ladygoschen hospital in 1 year.
Mangaluru: A vision committee was formed to take up development activities for the next three years for the district unit of Indian Red Cross Society.
The decision was taken at the annual general body meeting of IRCS district unit here on Friday, chaired by Deputy Commissioner and district IRCS unit President A B Ibrahim. The committee comprises Venu Sharma, Sylvester D’Souza, Dinesh Rao and Dr G K Bhat. Earlier, Venu Sharma suggested of setting up a corpus fund of Rs one crore towards the future projects of IRCS. “As per the new rule, firms have to spend 2 per cent of their profit for corporate social responsibilities and IRCS can encash the opportunity as there are several big private firms in the district,” he suggested.
1,002 units given free
Assistant Drugs Controller and IRCS?DK unit Secretary K?V?Nagaraj while reading the annual report said that a total of 1,002 units of blood was given free of cost to Government Ladygoschen hospital in the last year, out of the total 2,761 units collected from 87 blood donation camps.
When IRCS?Vice President and Blood Bank Chairman R?A?Fernandes informed the members that the blood bank is running under loss as majority of the blood collected is given free of cost to the government hospital patients, Member Dinesh Rao suggested the DC to take steps to collect nominal fee (blood testing fee) either from the patients or hospital. The DC in his reply assured to look into the issue.
Fernandes also informed the members that the IRCS Blood Bank is the only blood bank among the 14 blood banks in the district, which does not ask for replacement of blood, while issuing blood to patients. The private hospital blood banks have been asking for replacements from the patients, besides charging them the full amount.
Help desk
Managing Committee Member Raveendranath K requested the district administration to provide assistance towards the help desk at Lady Goschen government hospital, which is maintained by IRCS.
He said that he is paying from his pocket a sum of Rs 4,500 per month towards the salary of the staff who is maintaining the help desk at Govt Ladygoschen hospital. When DC sought to know whether there is a need for the help desk, Member Hanumanth Kamath said that the help desk is very much needed as many illiterate come to the hospital from far away places. Hence, the DC asked Red Cross managing committee members to find a solution for the same.
Additional DC and district IRCS Vice President Kumar and IRCS district unit Chairman B Prabhakar Sriyan and management committee members were present.
Election on Nov 1
As the term of the present committee comes to an end in the month of November, it was decided to conduct the election for the 10 posts of Managing Committee members of the district unit of IRCS on November 1. The members unanimously resolved to appoint IRCS?DK unit former Secretary Suresh Kumar as the returning officer.