Blood Banks India TQA programme aids in the implementation and execution of nationally recognized standards of quality with the exponential increase in demand for operational excellence and market competitiveness.

In India, blood collection, storage and issue of blood for transfusion are done mainly in the blood banks attached to hospitals, run mostly by the state and central governments. Voluntary agencies and private blood banks also carry out significant proportions of blood banking activities. There are a total of 2465 licensed blood banks in India. Out of them, about 55% are from public sector, 25% are from non government organizations (NGO), 8% blood banks are managed by Indian Red Cross Society and rest are from corporate and profit making sector. In the absence of a national programme, the critical issues that plague BTS in India are their fragmented management and lack of networking.Blood banks/ centres are operating in total isolation and their standards vary from state to state, city to city and centre to centre in the same city. In spite of hospital-based blood banking system, many large hospitals and nursing homes do not have their own blood banks and this has led to a mushrooming of blood banks in corporate and profit making sector.
In India, about 6.5 million units (1997) are collected annually against the requirement of ten million units requirement. The blood donation system is still dependent predominantly on replacement family donors. As per an estimate of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), 55% blood donation in India is thorugh voluntary non-remunerated blood donors (VNRBD). Directed blood donation is prevalent in many parts of the country but autologous blood donation is almost nil. As per the verdict of the Hon. Supreme Court of India, professional or paid donors are banned in India. However, it is widely felt that these type of donors are still prevalent in the garb of patient’s relative.
In 1996, the Supreme Court gave directives to the Government of India to regulate and upgrade the functioning of blood banks and transfusion services in the country, constitute national and state blood transfusion councils, complete licensing of all blood banks and put a ban on professional blood donations from 1 January 1998. Since then, national and state blood transfusion councils have been set up to promote voluntary blood donation, and research and educational activities. A national blood transfusion policy has been formulated. The programme for upgradation of blood transfusion services is being looked after by the National AIDS Control Organization. Guidelines for standard operating procedures have also been developed. However, these need to be formalized and distributed. Reference laboratories need to be identified at national level for external quality assessment. Furthermore, training of blood transfusion personnel in transfusion medicine and education programmes for clinicians on the "Rational Use of Blood" need to be initiated.

• Quality Control
• Quality Assurance
• Quality Improvement