Mobile blood units axed in NHS bid for efficiency

Donors asked to visit larger venues such as churches and halls

Mobile units collecting lifesaving blood donations have been axed from Ashford and will no longer visit workplaces and other venues.

NHS Blood and Transplant will scrap the bloodmobile service from October and asked donors to visit sessions in churches and village halls instead.

Mike Stredder, director of blood donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said the changes would provide a better service and efficiency for the NHS.

He said: “We are very grateful to all those who give up their time to donate blood.

“Their generosity helps save and improve the lives of patients across the country.

“We hope donors understand how important it is to the wider NHS that we collect blood from donors as efficiently as possible and that this may sometimes mean making changes to local programmes.

“By holding blood donation sessions at larger venues, rather than in a three-bed bloodmobile, we can deliver better value for the NHS.

“We can also offer more appointments and generally have more space which can make it more comfortable for our donors.”

Every blood donation can save or improve up to three lives and each day NHS Blood and Transplant needs more than 6,000 donors across England to meet patient need.

Donors from all blood groups are important but the NHS particularly need donors from O negative (the universal blood group), A negative and B negative to donate regularly.

The NHS also needs more black African, black Caribbean, mixed race and South Asian people to become blood donors.

To find out more about blood donation, visit www.blood.co.uk

Blood units will no longer visit workplaces