BLOODY WASTE! NHS bins 61,000 bags from donors
BLUNDERS by the NHS have led to more than 61,000 bags of blood being binned, despite a shortage of donors.
The bags were thrown away because they were stored at the wrong temperature or the blood was not used within a 35-day limit.
The appalling waste over the last five years is revealed in information obtained by this newspaper.
Sam Packer from the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “The NHS should stick a pin in this waste and ensure that blood rather than cash is flowing in donation centres.”
The blood that was disposed of could have saved thousands of lives and was worth almost £8million.
It costs the NHS £130.52 to store each unit of blood donated by members of the public.
And the figure across the whole of the UK will be even higher as the statistics only relate to England.
In the two years from 2016 to 2018, nearly 40,000 units had to be binned due to errors.
Mr Packer added: “The NHS should not be sucking taxpayer cash unnecessarily.
“Mistakes costing millions are frustrating enough to leave any taxpayer light-headed.” Our exclusive investigation into the staggering losses comes amid desperate appeals for Brits to donate more blood in the face of national shortages.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is currently appealing for more male donors after revealing the number of men giving their blood in England has fallen by around a quarter in the past five years.
And the blood bank says 4,000 new donors from both sexes are needed a day simply to meet demand.
The NHS has also been trying to recruit more black donors.
They are 10 times more likely to have the Ro blood type, which is needed to treat patients suffering from sickle cell disease.
An NHSBT spokesman said: “We collect around 1.4million units of blood a year.
“Less than 1% has to be discarded for safety reasons, such as a donation not being the correct weight or volume, problems maintaining a donation at a safe temperature, or if the donation has expired before it can be used by a hospital.”