Health Ministry signs MoU with WB govt to set up Centre of Excellence in Transfusion Medicine

New Delhi: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Government of West Bengal to formalize its support to set up a state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence in Transfusion Medicine at Kolkata. Government of India has approved this important initiative with an outlay of approximately Rs. 200 Crores towards equipment, manpower and running costs. The land for this initiative will be provided free of cost by the State government. The move intends to strengthen the blood transfusion services in the State and the surrounding region. Shri R K Vats, Additional Secretary (Health) and Shri Anil Verma, Principal Secretary Health, Government of West Bengal signed the MoU on behalf of their respective Ministries.

Metro Blood Bank Project is conceived to be a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to set up state-of-the-art Centres of Excellence in transfusion medicine in the four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. These centres are high volume blood collection centres where there is state-of-the-art technology in transfusion medicine for component separation, processing of blood and quality systems. Facilities for screening of collected blood by NAT would be made available at these centres and also extended to the other blood banks of the State.