Why are blood donor appointments off?

REGULAR BLOOD DONORS should not be worried if their appointment is cancelled over the next few weeks. The news comes from the NHS Blood & Transplant Service (NHSBT).

Some regular donors in London have been told that their next regular appointment to donate blood has been cancelled and have been asking what the reason is. The NHSBT has explained that there are three reasons for this.

•The lockdown has led to fewer people using the NHS for non-Corona reasons. Road traffic is down, so road accidents are too.  Human traffic is down too, which has contributed to decreasing the incidence of burglary and violent crime which may lead to emergency hospital treatment. A number of non-emergency operations have been cancelled.  All this means that the demand for blood and plasma is lower than average. Stocks of blood and platelets are at a good level and can cope with demand without the normal level of top-up.

•NHSBT is also doing its bit to help the NHS deal with the Coronavirus crisis.  The service is collecting plasma samples from people who have recovered from COVID-19 which may be used to treat patients struggling with the disease – and some routine blood donor appointments have been cancelled to allow this work to take place.

•The Lockdown rules – social distancing, keeping indoors if you are in a vulnerable group – make it difficult for donors to travel to appointments and impossible for some.

However, the shelf life of blood is short, and regular donors are being told that if their donor appointment is cancelled they should please made a new appointment by ringing 0300-123 2323, going to blood.co.uk or using the NHSGiveBlood app.

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