While the demand for blood units has increased in the tricity, considering the rise in cases of dengue, the limited number of machines used for separating blood, has failed to ease the situation.

In the city, the machine is available at the PGI, GMCH-32. In Mohali, meanwhile, the facility is available in the Fortis Hospital. The Blood Bank Society, is now in the process of procuring a licence for installing a machine for separating a component of blood.

Talking to Newsline, Col R S Shah, Director, Blood Bank Society, said the formalities for getting the licence may take a couple of months.

“Right now, even as the response from the donors in Chandigarh is enthusiastic, the limited number of separating machines, available in the tricity, is preventing supply from meeting the demand. While the machines make available the concentrated separation of blood into components, which means generation of more components from a single unit of blood, as compared to the manual separation.

The blood-separating machine will greatly help in making more platelets available to meet the demand of dengue patients,” he said.

Going by the huge demand of blood for the treatment of the dengue patients, the blood banks across the city are under a huge pressure to supply blood.

The doctors and the banks alike have appealed to the public to donate blood to meet the shortage.