Mamata inaugurates 'Jeevan Shakti' app

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday inaugurated a mobile app through which patients and their family members will get to know the availability of blood of different groups in the government-run blood banks.

The 'Jeevan Shakti' app, developed by the state Health department, will cater to a large number of patients in the state. It will provide detailed information regarding the reserves of blood of various groups in various state-run blood banks.

The Health department has developed this app to ensure easy access to information about availability of blood. The app has several useful features to help patients and their relatives trace donors and find out the availability of blood at the state-run blood banks.

Interested persons can enroll themselves in the app as potential donors. The main features of the app are list of donors in the state, along with their names, mobile numbers, addresses and blood groups they belong to. After inaugurating the app, the Chief Minister said that it will be immensely beneficial for a large number of people in the state.

It may be mentioned here that around 15 lakh units of blood are required by patients in a year in Bengal, whereas the collection of blood in a year remains around 11 lakh units. The requirement of blood in the country remains at 1.30 crore units per year, out of which around 94 lakh units are collected. In Bengal, there are as many as 70 state government-run blood banks, 35 private and 16 that are run by the Centre.

The patients requiring blood transfusion or their family members often shuttle between various blood banks in the city but they find that the desired blood groups they are looking for are not available. As a result, family members of the patients often face difficulties.

The newly launched mobile app will prove extremely handy for the patients and their relatives, who will have prior information about the availability of their desired blood group.

D Ashis, secretary, Medical Bank, said: "It is no doubt a good initiative by the government and the patients' family members will have information on the availability of blood. The private blood banks should be included in the system."

Meanwhile Dr Pradip Mitra, Director of Health Service in the state, said the new application will immensely help the people.