Adverse weather putting blood supply at risk - IBTS

Adverse weather putting blood supply at risk - IBTS

The IBTS has warned that it may not be able to continue to meet hospital demand for blood because of the effect of adverse weather conditions on attendance at blood donation clinics.

Operations Director Paddy Bowler said that the sustained shortfall in collection has reduced supply to 5 days of O positive and just 3 days of O negative. "The IBTS has only been able to meet 75 - 80% of our collection targets over the past three weeks and this has put significant strain on the blood supply. This extended period of bad weather has affected the ability of donors to get to us and has also resulted in a number of cancelled clinics, because our collection teams simply could not get to their designated collection locations.

"On Wednesday, the IBTS asked hospitals to be careful of their use of O negative and A negative blood in particular and if we cannot increase attendances at clinics over the next few days, we are predicting shortages across all blood groups by the end of next week. This will inevitably impact on the ability to continue with scheduled elective surgery.

"The IBTS are making special arrangements to collect blood on Sunday in D'Olier Street and in 5 other locations over the weekend. We have already advised hospitals that we will communicate on the state of the blood supply on Monday. While we realise that conditions are difficult we are confident that donors will make a special effort to answer this call. Clinic locations may change at short notice, depending on accessibility and any change to clinic locations will be posted on our website www.giveblood.ie.

ENDS