The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Blood Services seeking donations
A resurgence in medical procedures plus the looming long weekend has prompted a blood donation plea from Canadian Blood Services.
“We're seeing the hospitals begin to catch up on the backlog of procedures that were postponed during the pandemic,” said CBS regional director Peter Mcdonald in an interview Thursday.
“Also as restrictions start to ease and we see, you know, more people on the highways, more people involved in activities, we're seeing more traumas and the need in emergency rooms (increases).”
On top of the rising demand is the expected downturn in donations around Labour Day as people go out of town for the weekend. On Thursday, there were about 120 unfilled appointments at the Bayers Lake clinic including about 40 on the weekend.
LIMITED POOL OF ELIGIBLE DONORS
A holiday-related downturn is a challenge because only one in two Canadians are eligible to donate blood at the best of times, and less then four per cent are active donors who've given in the past 12 months.
A donation drop wouldn't necessarily have a direct impact on local hospital needs because CBS can tap into the national supply but the goal is to have blood products on hand locally, Mcdonald said.
“We have a production and distribution site in Dartmouth so all the blood that's collected in the Maritimes comes back to that site for processing and then is supplied to hospitals across the Maritimes.”
A robust local supply is particularly important in cases when a patient needs a specific blood product match. Storms and other disruptions can delay the transportation of these kinds of rarer products from the national inventory.
The CBS lab draws three components from local blood donations: Plasma, which can last up to a year, red cells that last for 42 days and platelets, which expire after only seven days.
Platelets are commonly used in cancer treatment and for leukemia patients, Macdonald said, so given its perishability it's important that local inventory is strong.
While all blood types are needed, CBS is putting out a special call for people with O-negative blood, which can be transfused to almost any patient in need.
APPOINTMENT ONLY
Reflecting on the impact of the pandemic on the blood supply, Mcdonald said donations were obviously affected during strict lockdown periods.
But he credited public health officials such as
Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, who emphasized the need for people to continue to donate given that blood clinics have put in place stringent COVID-18 protection measures.
For example, blood donations must be done by appointment only with no walk-ins. You can book at blood.ca, download the Giveblood app or call 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888236-6283).
“It's important at this point to get the message out there and ensure that that response continues from donors and hopefully from new donors too, perhaps folks who haven't attended in some time and have been lapsed as blood donors.”