Punjab Newsline | Chandigarh
Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh on Thursday urged voluntary blood donors and youngsters to extend the spirit of donation to organs, saying organ donation after brain death can save multiple critically ill patients.
Addressing a State-Level NGO Conference in Chandigarh, he praised voluntary organisations and social workers for strengthening blood transfusion services and felicitated 69 top-performing blood donation NGOs.
Dr Balbir Singh said Punjab is adopting advanced technologies such as NAT and CLIA to improve blood safety and detect infections like HIV and hepatitis at an early stage. The state has 201 licensed blood centres and collected over 5.44 lakh units of blood in 2025-26.
He also highlighted the Punjab Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, which has conducted three liver transplants recently and is preparing to begin kidney transplants. The minister appealed to citizens to pledge their organs so that kidneys, liver and corneas can help save lives.
He further urged youngsters to adopt healthy diets, exercise regularly and work towards eliminating anaemia among young women.
