Transfusion service: It is now harder to predict demand

Scotland’s blood bank is working to cope with unpredictable demands as it emerges from the pandemic.

Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service associate director, Debbie McNaughton says demand for blood is unpredictable since pandemic and that shortages have been noticeable.

“Demand is not as predictable as it was pre-pandemic and there have been times where we haven’t had as much stock as we would like. “However, with our donor teams’ efforts, the generosity of donors and the excellent management of blood stocks by hospitals, there has been no restriction to patients.”

She added that hospital demand has returned to pre-pandemic levels with 2,700 units of blood being supplied to hospitals every week. Cut-backs on elective surgery saw a fall to 2,400 units weekly.

“There are currently 95,761 active donors in Scotland who donated within the last 12 months. This reduced to 91,905 during the pandemic, and although we can see our donor base rebuilding there is more work to be done. Donations can drop off by up to 20% every summer in Scotland and we are asking people to make an extraspecial effort to donate, particularly if you are blood group A or O.”

O positive type blood is the most common in Scotland and the so-named Celtic group has, in turn, a greater demand from the predominately O positive patients.

A positive blood, carried by 29% of Scots, can be transfused into the large O positive and smaller O negative blood carriers as well as the small pool of A negative and A positive patients.

A negative blood types, carried by 6% can be given to A negative and O positive people.

The rarest blood type in Scotland is AB negative.