Appeal for public to donate blood as rise in hospital demand depletes stocks

The IBTS is urging any donors who have received an appointment to attend one of their clinics to make a special effort to keep it.

With hospital demand for blood supplies back to pre-Covid levels the Irish Blood Transfusion Service is urging people to arrange to donate.

The blood bank says there is concern that stock levels are lower than they would like because of the strong hospital demand.

The IBTS is urging any donors who have received an appointment to attend one of their clinics to make a special effort to keep it.

“This is a particularly challenging time for blood collection at the moment as schools return and people are busy with work and family commitments,” says an IBTS spokesperson.

During the period immediately after the national lockdown demand for donations was down because normal hospital activity was suspended. Demand for red cells was down as much as 40% in early April.

The IBTS has radically changed its collection model because of Covid-19.

“We switched to an appointment system so we can manage the throughput much better and maintain social distancing," says the spokesperson.

“Now coming back into the autumn demand has gone back up again and has almost normalised."

GOOD NEWS! If you are a healthcare worker, either clinical or non clinical with no known contact with #Covid19 cases then you are allowed to donate. However HWC's who are working in a healthcare setting with cases of Covid-19 (on C19 wards in any role) can't donate at present. pic.twitter.com/4jzezCmG0U

— Giveblood (@Giveblood_ie) June 24, 2020

But visits to the donation clinics are by appointment only and the blood bank has to try and match the supply with the demand.

“It will be an ongoing issue for us into the winter. We cannot appeal to donors because we have capacity issues. You cannot run an appeal if you have an appointment system.” 

The IBTS is running their appointment system by phone. People are sent a text message and asked to contact the blood back to make an appointment.

“It is really all about people contacting us to make an appointment and coming to the clinic. There are no walk-ins.”