O Positive and O Negative donors needed urgently

O Positive and O Negative donors needed urgently - IBTS

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service today (Wednesday) called on O positive and O negative donors to make a special effort to attend a blood donation clinic before this bank holiday weekend.

"Since the beginning of the year we have issued almost 2,000 more units of blood than during the same period last year. Our supply of O positive and O negative is very low and unless we collect 1,000 O positive and 400 O negative donations between now and Friday, we will not be able to fill all hospital orders. We are concerned that if there are one or two serious incidents over the weekend, we would not be able to meet demand in these particular groups.

"The IBTS needs to collect 3,000 donations a week to maintain the blood supply, however the number of people attending clinics in recent weeks has dropped significantly.>"

"The good weather over the last few weeks has led to a significant drop in attendance at clinics and the supply is down by 980 units on the same time last year - that means we have 3-3.5 days supply. As the forthcoming bank holiday weekend marks the beginning of the summer holiday period, we are asking donors to come to our clinics to give blood, before the weekend," said Director of Operations Paddy Bowler.