IRCS blood banks across Gujarat have already recorded a 70 per cent decrease in blood replacement in the last two years when rest of the blood banks encourage more and more voluntary donations to bring down replacement.

“At present, there is no regulation over blood pricing. The difference of pricing is probably because of economy of scale as testing; storage and maintenance costs decrease in larger blood banks as compared to smaller ones. That is why probably there is a certain amount of freedom of pricing in the absence of an upper limit,” said Air Marshal P K Desai, the managing trustee of Missameal Trust that works in coordination with the IRCS for its various programmes.

With the replacement being brought down, the chances of increase of professional donors may become real once again, given the simple economics behind it.

However, Joint Director of GSCBT, Dr Rajesh Gopal, said: “While the apprehensions may be partly justified, but it will put a check on professional blood donation, which is illegal. Moreover, blood banks encouraging such donations also become culprits in the eyes of law. While we have very strict regulations to monitor this, the parameters to set up a blood bank are so thorough that profiteering will be controlled.”

Moreover, with inspections from a national expert identified by the Union government and two teams from the GSCBT and the Food and Drugs Control Authority (FDCA) once a year, things will remain under control, he added.

Speaking about the price difference, Dr Gopal said: “While there is an upper limit per unit set as per national guidelines, most blood banks in the state have been charging within the upper limit. We do not have a process at present to control the variation, but we are expecting the National Blood Transfusion Bill, which is looking into this aspect, to come up by 2010 end.”