Appeal for 2,000 blood donations over next four weeks

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) has issued an appeal for an additional 2,000 blood donations over the next four weeks to help the national blood supply, as some blood groups have fallen to less than three days of stock.

Director of Donor Services and Logistics Paul McKinney said that while the aim is to have seven days worth of supply, current levels, including O- and B-, are at just two days of supply.

There are just over three days supply of O+ blood type which relates to nearly half of the population.

The IBTS said there has been a consistently high demand for blood since the June bank holiday weekend, and that an additional 500 donations per week are needed to keep up with demand.

The service has put a particular emphasis on encouraging new donors of African Heritage to join the national blood donor panel to help diversify the donor base and get better blood type matches for patients.

African heritage donors are ten times more likely to have the Ro blood type which is needed to treat people with sickle cell disease.

The lack of donor availability is attributed to high sickness levels, alongside the start of summer holiday travel.

The service also said that new donor attendances have not fully recovered to pre-Covid levels.

Regular donors are being asked to make an extra effort to attend their nearest donation clinic, especially in Dublin and Cork where there is clinic availability every week, and urged to consider giving blood before going on holidays.

New donors are asked to check their eligibility on giveblood.ie before coming to a clinic, or to call to make an appointment.

Mr McKinney said the service usually “likes to keep seven days” worth of supply.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said: “This is why we are calling for an urgent appeal. We need to get those stocks back up to that level of seven days as quickly as possible.”

Mr McKinney said stocks had been “good, but it is difficult to predict hospital usage”.

He added summer holidays coupled with travel and sickness within the community have brought stocks down to current levels.

“It is a bit of a perfect storm, hospitals are extremely busy. A number of weeks ago, we issued in excess of 2,600 units of blood, which is the second-highest weekly issue of blood in the last five years,” Mr McKinney said.