Background And History

Bangalore Medical Services Trust (BMST) was established by the Rotary Club of Bangalore and TTK & Company in 1984.

BMST, initially set up to provide blood-banking services through its division, the Rotary Bangalore-TTK Blood Bank, has evolved over time to become a centre of excellence in the areas of blood banking, transfusion and Immunohematology; transplant Immunology; tissue banking; solid organ and stem cell transplantation; Training; Research; and community based health education and health services.

Approvals, Authorizations and Recognition

Registered Trust

BMST was registered as a “Public Charitable Trust” in February 1984, with the Registration Number 784 in 1983-84, dated 16/02/1984.

12AA

Registered under section 12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961, vide no. Trust / 718 dated 15/03/1984

80G

As a not-for-profit trust, BMST has been granted ‘Approval under Section 80G (5)(vi) of the Income Tax act, 1961’. Therefore donations to the organization are tax-deductible.

FCRA

BMST has been granted authorization to accept foreign funds as it is registered under Section 6(1) of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976. This is now called Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The FCRA registration Number is 094420600.

DSIR recognition

BMST has received recognition as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO) by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.

Drugs Control :

Rotary Bangalore-TTK Blood Bank, BMST has been licensed by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), Government of India, License no: KTK / 28C-7 / 95, dated 07.08.95 and renewed from time to time as per the Drugs Control Act & rules.

NABH Accreditation

Rotary Bangalore-TTK Blood Bank, BMST is accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH)

RGUHS Recognition and affiliation with Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS):

BMST has been designated as a specialized laboratory of RGUHS and a Centre of Excellence in Blood Banking, Immunohematology & Tissue typing; for collaborative research and training.

Genesis

In September 1983 Dr Latha Jagannathan initiated a blood donor centre to support hospitals faced with difficulties in accessing good quality blood in Bangalore. She and her friends, Malathi Aiyar and Lalli Srimurthy organized voluntary blood donation camps at colleges, factories and other organizations and motivated people to donate blood to hospitals in Bangalore. Rtn P.D.G P.T Kasturi and Rtn Capt. V.V.K. Mani approached Dr Latha Jagannathan with a proposal to establish a blood bank, and thus the Bangalore Medical Services Trust was formed in February 1984 as a partnership of the Rotary Club of Bangalore and TTK and Co. BMST operated out of the offices of TTK Prestige till 1990, until the building was constructed on a plot of land donated by the Government of Karnataka at Thippasandra.

The people and organizations behind BMST

Rotary Club of Bangalore

Rotary Club of Bangalore is the oldest and largest Rotary club in Rotary District 3190. Besides BMST, the club has supported several other education, health and community projects

TTK & Co

The TTK Group, started in 1928, is an Indian business conglomerate with a presence across several segments of industry including consumer durables, cookware, bio-medical devices, foods, pharmaceuticals and supplements, virtual assistant services and health care services.

BMST Trustees

BMST has 12 trustees, 6 nominees of TTK & Co. and 6 of Rotary Club of Bangalore who change every year. The Chairman is a nominee of RCB & the Managing Trustee a nominee of TTK & Co.

Rotary Club of Bangalore and TTK & Co, the founding partners as well as other Rotary clubs, Rotary International, and many other corporate & individual donors have mobilized the funding support for BMST over the years.

Several Rotarians of RCB have supported BMST. Notable among them were Rtn P.D.G P.T Kasturi, founder Chairman and the visionary who initiated this project, Rtn Capt. V.V.K. Mani & Rtn. Arun Kumar, who contributed enormously in terms of time and effort to at first get a Civic Amenity (CA) site of the Government of Karnataka and then construct the building.

Dr. Latha Jagannathan, Medical Director and Managing Trustee and Mrs. Lakshmi Ravichandran, Trustee, BMST and Head, Donor Recruitment, have contributed, totally free, their time, effort and expertise to establish and grow BMST to what it is today.

In addition, several volunteers, have contributed to BMST, of note among them is Mr. Pratap, who has developed and supported the software program Hemotrace pro bono for BMST.

Vision

Mission

BMST is a not-for-profit charitable trust which provides ifesaving services through access to safe blood and cellular products and, facilitation of stem cell, solid organ and tissue transplantation for all patients in need. We also work with the community to provide advocacy, education and specific interventions in the area of health and related areas

Objectives

To promote and sustain voluntary blood, stem cell and tissue donations
To spread awareness about organ and body donation
To meet the defined needs of the community for safe blood components, cellular & tissue products
To follow high standards of operations as per national /international guidelines in order to develop & promote the culture of quality and ethics in all our services and facilities
To help the poor and needy with blood, tissues, laboratory and other services at subsidized or at no cost at all
To initiate and advocate for newer and improved testing protocols with clinicians in the field of blood and transplant
To do capacity building through training and technology transfer
To do Research & Development in blood, tissue and cellular therapies

Our Best Practices

Best practices and unique distinctions

Emphasis on 100% voluntary blood donation, and stringent donor selection
100% blood separated into components
Screening all units by NAT
Ensuring vein-to- vein traceability
All blood units and other samples Bar coded for identification
Automated tests whose results are fed directly to the blood bank Software (Hemotrace)
Every component barcode is scanned and the results of TTI, blood group, pre-transfusion testing etc obtained and all labels are printed from software to eliminate errors due to manual entries
All relevant records also printed directly from software to eliminate manual entries
Functioning as the Immunohematology reference laboratory for South India.
Actively promoting the concept of storage centres and bulk transfer of blood to improve accessibility to safe blood components (as on February 2017, we supply blood to 22 storage centres in Bangalore and 1 in Mysore)Note :Our policy of taking back unused blood components from storage centres is perceived as a plus point with these hospitals. These components are issued to other hospitals / patients thus ensuring there is no wastage.
Quality has always been emphasized but NABH accreditation has made us more conscious of continual improvement
Recognition as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO) by the Department of scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India
Designated as a specialized laboratory of RGUHS (Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences) and a Centre of Excellence in Blood Banking, Immunohematology & Tissue typing for collaborative research and training