Of the total requirement of 2.5 lakh units of blood in the city per annum, just 75,000 units are obtained through voluntary blood donation while the rest are got from replacement. And during the summer vacations, even this amount shrinks as most of the donors are out of town, said sources. In some cases, even replacement blood is not available, forcing hospitals to postpone operations, they added.

According to Dr N B Jaju, blood bank officer, St George's Hospital, they have supplied blood units to hospitals like Sion, KEM, Tata Memorial and Red Cross Blood Bank in the last few days, and have also received a request from GT Hospital. This blood is supplied on a credit-debit basis so that the hospitals can return the blood when they have a surplus, he explained.

Dr Jaju, who is also the secretary of the Federation of Bombay Blood Banks, explained thatsince colleges are closed and office goers leave the city during the vacations, voluntary blood donation suffers. As a result, blood banks atached to hospitals have to organise blood donation camps at places as far as Virar, Dahanu, Navi Mumbai, Surat and even Bhopal so that some requirement for the hospitals can met, he said.

Dr Meena Kumar, professor of surgery, Sion Hospital, added the hospital often has to make arrangements for blood before taking up any routine operation. And if a particular blood group is not available, it has to be borrowed from other hospitals, she said. This may even lead to the postponement of operations, she added.

The only solution, says Dr Jaju, is that people should voluntarily donate blood regularly, especially before the vacations.