Short of blood, Indian hospitals put off elective surgeries

 24-May-16, The Times of India 

Blood donations are usually sluggish in summer as people are on vacation and educations institutions that host drives are closed. But the crisis this May, say hospitals, is forcing doctors to put off elective surgeries.

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Doctors attributed the paucity to the elections, which kept volunteers busy, and the vacations that have kept away students, who form 75% of donors. City hospitals are presently seeing at least a 40% drop in donors since last month.

Government hospitals are increasingly depending on their donor registry. "In an emergency, we call up a volunteer from our registry," said N Rajkumar, head of the blood bank at Stanley Medical College and Hospital. There wasn't really a crisis as elective surgeries were postponed by a week, especially of patients with rare blood groups, he said.

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