Irish Blood Transfusion Service to utilise blood dumped by hospitals

Huge amounts of blood being dumped by hospitals in the Mid-West will be harvested through a clinic opened by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, it emerged yesterday.

Patients with the potentially life-threatening condition haemochromatosis have to get blood taken regularly due to a buildup of iron.

University Hospital Limerick has been sending patients with the condition to Ennis and Nenagh General Hospitals for the past two years as it had no more capacity for taking blood from these people.