artical on blood donation camp held and i was the volunteer
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Recently got an opportunity to participate in a blood donation camp in a different state. I was very curious to see how the blood donation camp is organised because there are always those little things which one could learn. The camp was being organised at a public place and it was half way through by the time we reached. The entrance of the hall, there was a neat counter manned by 2-3 volunteers where donors were expected to register before they proceed to donate
The donor history questionnaire – a formality or a tool for safety? Just then I witnessed the procedure of donor consent form filling. The volunteer with good hand writing printed the donor’s name, address, contact number, gender and age and then, just proceeded to request the donor to sign the form. The whole donor history questionnaire and consent was reduced to capture the donor’s identity alone. Whatever happened to informed consent! Unfortunately, the significance of the donor history questionnaire was not understood in this place, like many others. We often have donors who complain about the length of the questionnaire and those who are keen to seek help from their friends to filling the form quickly. We would rather have a donor walk away without the donation than risk a donation which happens from a donor who has not read, understood and answered the questionnaire sincerely. The donor history questionnaire is a tool which assists the patients but also the donor’s safety. Not every medical condition which adds risk to the donor or the recipient can be tested for and the questionnaire seeks to identify such areas. The donor must be explained the importance of it, if they are not happy sparing the time needed to fill the form. Should there be any donor who is unable to read or understand the form, assistance must be provided by the healthcare professionals / volunteer on a one-on-one basis. Such form filling such never be left to the peers. There are risky behaviour and disease history related questions in the form which the donor may not want to answer in the presence of his/her peers. If there is a situation where the peers are reading into the donor’s form, he/she may answer a question incorrectly. It is true that voluntary blood donation largely takes place in outdoor blood donation drives where the number of donor’s is high and the space limited. However this issue is related more to the behavioural and notional aspects of the people involved in blood donation because we see this happing even in blood banks where donors donate in relatively calm settings. It is an important and non-negotiable responsibility of the organisers and blood bank teams to ensure that the importance of the donor history questionnaire and consent form is not diluted and the associated procedures are strictly adhered to. “Voluntary blood donation” with benefits? In the same camp, on the other end of the room, in the refreshment area were placed neat stack of takeaway gifts in polythene bags. Again it was heartbreaking that the organisers felt necessary to provide gifts to the donors in exchange of the blood they donate and the donation which everyone wants to call a truly voluntary blood donation. Involving gifts and freebies of substantial monetary value in voluntary blood donation is a practice which is not in line with the acceptable norms for voluntary blood donation. Refreshment, donor pins, thank you card, certificate etc. are the limits of what should be offered to the donors. Ultimately, whatever is the cost involved in providing these gifts / freebies is passed onto the patients by the blood bank as part of the processing charges. While most donor’s want to see the needy patients receive blood at the minimum possible processing charges, involving gifts for donor’s limits access to blood further for the poorer patients. We also have strong reasons to believe that the notion that such gifts are necessary to attract donors is also either incorrect or very dangerous. Incorrect because across more than 65000 units of blood which we have seen donated in more than 700 blood donation camps we have organised, we have never had a donor look forward to or ask for such things. Dangerous because if truly the donor is getting attracted by the freebies, then it is also likely that they may hide information associated with ineligibility in the donor screening just to secure the gifts. Both these things, compromised donor history questionnaire and freebies for donors came as a shock because we were under the impression that such things have been phased out largely across the country. The visit only served to remind us that there is a long way to go to achieve high quality blood donation camps which pave the way for truly voluntary blood donation. We appeal to all the organisers to put their faith and commitment in the right processes.