Jaipur: Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital and the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, Jaipur, have strengthened blood donation protocols to curb illegal paid transfusions and improve transfusion safety. The hospital administration has directed its blood banks to implement stricter screening, verification, and reporting measures to prevent professional donors and middlemen from entering the system.Under the revised process, trained blood bank staff will conduct confidential, private pre-donation interviews to assess donors’ medical history and risk factors for safe blood transfusion. A senior SMS Hospital official said, “The step has been taken to identify blood donors who have some diseases that involve risk in blood transfusion.” The aim is to ensure truthful disclosure in a safe setting, particularly for family-member donors who come to support patients.Blood bank doctors will also carry out physical checks to identify indicators of frequent or unsafe donation. These include low haemoglobin, anaemia, visible venipuncture marks suggesting repeated donations, and signs of substance abuse. Such checks are intended to detect donors who may be donating too often or under coercion, which can compromise both donor health and blood quality.To prevent repeat donations outside voluntary donation norms, donor details will be cross-verified against blood bank records. This database matching is meant to identify individuals who appear repeatedly but do not meet the criteria.The hospital has also instructed blood banks to request photo identification for donor verification.
