Blood donors urgently needed as highest number of blood units issued to hospitals in a decade

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) are urgently seeking an additional 2,000 blood donations over the next 4 weeks to support the national blood supply as most blood groups have fallen to under three days of stock.

Paul McKinney Director of Donor Services and Logistics said: “The IBTS aims to have 7 days supply, but current levels including O negative, A negative and B negative are under 3 days supply and O positive (at nearly half the population) is very low at 3.5 days."

“There has been a consistently high hospital demand for blood over the summer months and in August we issued the highest amount of blood units to hospitals in over a decade."

The high demand for blood has continued through September and the approaching Bank Holiday in October has meant that the IBTS need to boost their collections by nearly 500 donations per week in all blood groups to be able to continue to meet the demand.

High sickness levels, holiday travel combined with the traditional back to school demands, have all had an impact on donor availability throughout the Summer and now into Autumn.

Mr. McKinney said that the IBTS are asking regular donors who are texted for upcoming clinics over the coming weeks to make an extra effort to attend, especially in Dublin and Cork where there is clinic availability every week. This is vital to address the increased demand from hospitals.

A pre-amber alert letter was issued to all hospitals on September 27, restricting issues of certain blood groups and hospitals have been asked to reduce their stock holding.

This enables the IBTS to manage the limited blood supply available more effectively across the health service.

If the IBTS has to issue an ‘amber alert letter’ which is the next escalation level of the blood shortage plan, it would have an immediate implication for hospitals and for elective surgical procedures requiring blood support.