New Delhi, July 5 -- Following a series of blood transfusion safety breaches, the Centre is making external quality audits and centralized digital inventory tracking mandatory for India's 4,153 blood banks to strengthen patient safety, according to two officials and documents reviewed by Mint.

As part of the overhaul, the government is converting existing voluntary guidelines into legally binding requirements under the Drugs Rules by aligning India's transfusion safety protocols with World Health Organization (WHO), European Union and US accreditation standards.

The move follows several cases in which children tested positive for HIV after blood transfusions in Satna (Madhya Pradesh), West Singhbhum (Jharkhand), Jaipur (Rajasthan) and K...