Mumbai: Weeks after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a compliance order for blood banks, the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) has directed all such facilities to strictly comply with the order and the statutory provision under it.The council has also appointed a new district-level blood transfusion officer (BTO). While the post has been there for a while, a blood bank officer at one of the BMC-run hospitals said it is for the first time that the role of such an officer has been made clear in no uncertain terms.One of the duties of this BTO is to accompany FDA or CDSCO officers for joint inspections as and when required. Dr Suhas Mohanalkar, who heads SBTC, remained unavailable for a comment.Just months prior, FDA and CDSCO inspections found non-compliance at multiple blood centres and had halted J J Mahanagar Blood Bank as well as sealed Maya Blood Centre. FDA has now brought back an internal self-audit system against a prescribed checklist which all the blood banks need to complete within 30 days and document findings. “Rectify any deficiencies in infrastructure, staffing, testing, labelling, or record- keeping without delay... be prepared to produce the licence, records, and SOPs to an inspector at any time,” states FDA’s order.
