Blood service urgently requires more donors

As children we may have been scared by the school dental clinic, but as adults we are shying away from giving blood.

Figures released today by the New Zealand Blood Service have named and shamed Manukau and North Shore residents as having one of the lowest blood donor rates in the country.

Auckland City donors should not feel too smug. Despite having the largest population of eligible donors in New Zealand, Auckland ranks behind Tauranga, Dunedin and Hamilton in blood donation rates.

North Shore Deputy Mayor Dianne Hale said our increasingly busy lives might be to blame for the drop in donation rates.

"For some people it's a fear of the old needle, but I think in most cases it's just a time thing."

She said people should make giving blood part of their routine and not just something they thought of in a family medical crisis.

New Zealand Blood Service spokesman Paul Hayes said state-of-the art facilities recently opened in North Shore and Manukau should see an increase in donations there.

New Zealand's highly mobile population was one of the reasons behind low donation rates, he said. "When you move house you might tell your electricity company, cancel your Herald subscription, but you don't tell the New Zealand Blood Service."

With the service needing 30,000 new donors to replace those it loses each year and to keep up with growing demand, he is encouraging new and former donors to get busy.

"Hopefully for some of them it will become a habit."

BLOOD DONATIONS

* Only 4 per cent of New Zealand's adult population donate blood.

* More than 80 per cent of us will need blood or blood products in our lives.

* One donation can help to save the lives of three people.