Nearly 40,000 units of donated blood has been wasted in NI since 2012

ALMOST 40,000 units of donated blood were wasted in Northern Ireland in the past five years, new figures show.

Around 250,000 units of donated blood has been delivered to hospitals across Northern Ireland since 2012, but in the same period around 15% of blood was recorded as wasted, investigative website The Detail reported.

Blood is considered wasted when it cannot be transfused to a patient for technical reasons, which include faults in storage or expiration.

Around 64,000 blood donations are made in Northern Ireland each year, and it is estimated three lives are saved for every pint of blood donated.

In a statement to The Detail, a spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) said it kept a “buffer stock” of blood as the workload it has to deal with “results in some wastage”.

The South Eastern Health Trust is not included in the figures (as they were only able to

Donors: 15% of blood units wasted

provide figures for financial years, and not annually) so the overall loss would be higher.

By comparison, blood wastage in Scotland for the period between 2012 and 2017 was almost 11%.

The new figures also show components of blood donations made in Northern Ireland have been sold for commercial use, bringing in almost £500,000.

Blood is made up of different elements including red blood cells, platelets, plasma and red and white blood cells — referred to collectively as blood compo- nents. The liquid portion of the blood, known as plasma, is removed, and in Northern Ireland a surplus of this accumulates.

The findings show since 2008 this has been sold by the NIBTS to the pharmaceutical industry, with the profits reinvested back into the Department of Health. Between 2012 and 2016 over 38,000 litres of plasma were sold to Biotech Company Nova Biologics, a US pharmaceutical company, for £442,805.

In Northern Ireland there is an ongoing need for new donors.

Last year, NIBTS said it requires 8,000 new donors annually to meet demand, with an estimated three people getting blood transfusions every hour.

A unit of blood is the equivalent of approximately one pint and there are between 8 to 12 pints of blood in the body of an average adult.

Around 500 patients need lifesaving blood each week in Northern Ireland, with donations from the public vital.

The vast majority of blood donations are used within the health service, The Detail also reported.