General body meet Indian Red Cross Society Dakshina Kannada (IRCSDK) Unit - Innovative plans

General body meet Indian Red Cross Society Dakshina Kannada (IRCSDK) Unit - Innovative plans

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Sep 14, 2014:   IRCSDK district President DC A B Ibrahim  chaired the annual general body meeting of IRCS district unit at his offices on September 13 fore noon. Acceding to members long standing demad to put in place common blood bank cards for donors the DC said that he would convene a meeting and decide on distributing the cards soon.

 

Distribution of common cards will enable the blood donors to get the blood in any private hospital, even though  they may have donated blood at a blood bank located elsewhere in the area.

Nagarika Hitharakshana Vedike Convener and IRCS Blood Bank Committee Member Hanumanth Kamath said that the decision on distributing common blood bank cards was taken by the previous deputy commissioner N Prakash, but it was not implemented as he was transferred soon after. He also alleged a hospital of charging an exorbitant rate of Rs 2,500 for a unit of blood, despite the IRCS district unit passing an order to fix the rate at Rs 700. He was critical that office bearers were absent and that a Secretary was yet to be found.

Credit for Free blood:  The DK district unit bags the credit of issuing 733 units of blood free of cost to poor patients admitted at the Government Lady Goschen Hospital, during this year (April 2013 to March 2014), said Society Vice Chairman Ronald Anil Fernandes. It had collected 1,174 units of blood in the said period.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chairman explained the difficulties faced by the Society to maintain Help Desk set up at Lady Goschen Hospital premises to help patients visiting the hospital. The Help Desk was opened two years ago with an intention to assist the women who come to the hospital in filling application forms and guide them. However, the deputy commissioner, who is also the president of IRCS district unit, said that he would see to continue the services. Hanumanth Kamath also suggested to seek financial help from corporate companies like ONGC or MRPL under corporate social responsibility, to run the Help Desk.

While IRCS Managing Committee Member Vishnumuthy suggested to provide an opportunity to IRCS to organise Karavali Utsav to collect funds for the society, another member Dinesh Rao suggested that the district administration set aside an amount in the Karavali Utsav collection, for its smooth functioning.

DK IRCS launches website: Dakshina Kannada IRCS launched its website at the gen body meet on Sept 13. The website www.redcrossdk.org designed by Prakash Lobo, Founder of Pace Soft Technologies, comprises information about the IRCS, district office-bearers, activities, list of blood donors etc. Along with online donor registration, the website also allows for sending an online request for blood. Though the district unit had launched a website two years ago, it was static website while the new website is dynamic.  “In a dynamic website, anybody can update information from any part, but it has to be approved by the person who is in-charge of it,” he said.

Prakash Lobo was felicitated for developing the website free of cost. Senior most members of IRCS district unit, Captain Ganesh Rao and Gladis Rego launched the website, along with DC A B Ibrahim. IRCS district Chairman Prabhakar Shriyan was present.