Coimbatore: National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has mooted the idea of having accreditation to the blood banks and has approached the National Accreditation Board for testing and calibration Laboratories (NABL) in this regard, a senior official in NABL said on January 11.

With increasing cases of AIDS being reported in the country, NACO wanted to have a quality check of blood donors by granting accreditation to all blood banks in the country, NABL director and advisor, Department of Science and Technology, Dr A K Chakrabarthy, told reporters.

The proposal, to accredit one blood bank in each state to start with, was in the discussion stage and once the confirmation was received from NACO, the Board would form a panel of experts and work on this aspect, Chakrabarthy said.

Citing reports that some pathological laboratories were engaged in "unethical practices" in testing blood and urine samples, he said various states, including Delhi, were contemplating to have compulsory accreditation for pathological labs, which at present was only voluntary.

Since the people had to suffer for the negligence of these laboratories, compulsory accreditation would curb the mushrooming of such labs, particularly in the urban areas, Chakrabarthy, who was in Coimbatore to inaugurate NABL accreditation appreciation programme, said.

PTI