Canadian Blood Services transitioning to plasma collection

LETHBRIDGE FACILITY WILL BE THE THIRD IN CANADA

Lethbridge will join Sudbury and Kelowna as one of three Canadian Blood Services collection sites in Canada dedicated exclusively to the collection of plasma.

“The current blood operation will transition to plasma-only collection by the fall of 2020,” confirms CBS vice-president of public affairs Ron Vezina. “We anticipate it will probably be a three-month transition period where we need to be offline to train staff and build up the donor base, but the location selection and all that has not been done yet. There is a good chance it will not be in the current location — we really want to look at the statistics of the donor base and where those people are. And we want to look at where we want to be in the long run for convenience of donors as well.”

The footprint of the location has to be able to give us the ability to create a state-of-theart facility that will appeal to donors and give them a great donor experience.”

The five-year proof-ofconcept project is intended to be a testing site for new plasma extraction technologies and new models of care to enhance the donor experience, says Vezina, and to help provide new means to address the growing need for plasma protein products in Canada.

Whole blood is made up of four different parts, plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Using special technology which will soon be housed in Lethbridge, plasma will be directly extracted on site from the other blood parts and sent away to produce Immunoglobulin, which is used to treat neurological disorders and immune system disorders.

Plasma serum can also be extracted from any blood type and used universally in medical procedures, lessening the need for specific blood donor groups.

Vezina hopes the new plasmaonly focus of blood collection in the city will serve as a point of local pride for current and new donors in the region.

“Most people who donate realize they are giving a part of themselves, and that has the potential to impact or save a life,” he says.

“With plasma, there are a lot of patients that if they don’t get this they are in a catastrophic situation. It is life or death for many of the patients who receive the plasma protein products.”

“We have had fantastic donor support from the community in Lethbridge over the years,” adds Vezina.

“It is a high-performing centre. We have a great staff there and a great donor base so I think we are really set up for success in the long run.”

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