Operations face delays as blood stocks dip

By FRANCESCA MOLD health reporter

Blood supplies have plummeted to dangerously low levels nationwide, raising concern that operations could be postponed.

Blood Service medical director Peter Flanagan said that in the past week national stocks had suddenly fallen 10 per cent.

"The fact that stocks are falling when in the past week we exceeded our collection targets is cause for grave concern," he said.

"Supplies are only just meeting clinical demand."

Dr Flanagan appealed for new donors "to begin coming in urgently today."

He estimated that between 100 to 200 extra donors must be found each day this week to restore blood supplies to a safe level.

So far, no patient had been denied blood or had surgery postponed because of the shortage.

"But it is clear the situation is now a concern in this regard," he said.

The sudden drop happened at a time when supplies were sitting at a "just satisfactory" level - with blood coming in matching the amount given out.

The crisis also comes when the service should be stocking up in preparation for the busy Christmas/New Year season - a time when demand for blood increases but donations are down with most people on holiday.

Dr Flanagan said there seemed to be no single cause for the sudden depletion but demand at each blood centre throughout the country had increased substantially.

The two most common blood types, A and O, were most desperately needed, he said.

About 45 per cent of the population have type O and 40 per cent have type A.

The national blood service collects about 3000 units a week, of which 2500 are accepted for use in transfusions.

The service launched its first donor recruitment campaign last February in a bid to find 12,000 new donors to replace those lost due to a policy banning people who had spent more than six months in Britain between 1980 and 1996 from giving blood.

The policy aimed to safeguard supplies against the risk that a form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent of mad cow disease, might be transmitted through blood.

Dr Flanagan said the recruitment drive was on track, with an extra 9000 donors signed up so far.

* New, lapsed or existing donors should ring 0800 GIVEBLOOD (0800 448-325) or visit their local blood centre. The service will work with organisations wanting to arrange a visit from a bloodmobile or have a shuttle bus transport potential donors to blood centres.