‘Urgent appeal’ issued for blood donations, especially from people of African heritage

AN URGENT APPEAL has been issued for blood donations amid a lack of critical blood supplies.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) aims to have seven days’ worth of blood supply.

However, there are currently just two days’ worth of the O negative and B negative blood group.

O negative is a universal blood group and close to half of the population are in this group.

The IBTS has issued an “urgent appeal” to get those levels back to the seven days’ worth level “as quickly as possible”.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Paul McKinney, director of operations at the IBTS, said supplies are so low because there’s been a “bit of a perfect storm”.

“Hospitals are extremely busy – a number of weeks ago we issued over 2,600 units of blood, which is the second highest weekly issue of blood in the last five years,” said McKinney.

“The two weeks after that have also been in excess of 2,400 units.”

File image of a woman donating blood.

McKinney said stocks were “extremely good” before this period but that a combination of people travelling for summer holidays, an increase in COVID figures, and a high level of sickness in the community has impacted supplies.

“That all combining has put our stocks to these levels,” said McKinney.

“We do expect that, but it is busier this summer than it has been in the last number of summers.

“Those other variables have put us under pressure.”

McKinney remarked that there is a “challenge” in getting new and younger donors and noted that the IBTS is “particularly looking for new donors of African heritage”.

He said there is a need to “diversify the national donor base” and that when there are different blood donors, there is a better blood-type match for patients.

McKinney said this outreach to people of African heritage has included doing “lots of social media work and running marketing campaigns on radio and TV”.

The IBTS also attended World Africa Day events in May and is in the process of putting together schools’ programmes to get the message out.

McKinney also called on regular donors to make a “special effort to make an appointment” over the coming weeks.

He also appealed to regular donors who are going on holidays to consider making a donation before they go.

He added that people who have not donated before can visit the giveblood.ie website or phone 1800 731 137.

“We need new donors, we need younger donors,” added McKinney.