THE IRISH Blood Transfusion Service has said it needs 10,000 donations over the next three weeks if “serious blood shortages” are to be avoided in hospitals over the summer months.
Paddy Bowler, IBTS director of operations, said that hospital demand for blood and blood products had increased in the past year.
“Since the beginning of the year we have issued almost 2,000 more units of blood than during the same period last year,” he said.
“And we have just got through a very difficult week and bank holiday weekend without incident, thanks to the generosity of the donors who responded to our request for donations.”
Last Wednesday the IBTS made an urgent appeal for donations of O positive and O negative blood because supplies were so low. It ran two extra clinics yesterday and received 150 blood donations. However, it still needs to significantly boost supplies.
Mr Bowler said the IBTS needed to collect 3,000 donations a week to maintain the blood supply but the numbers attending clinics in recent weeks had dropped significantly because of the good weather.
“This, however, is only the beginning of the summer holiday period. Traditionally holiday periods present difficulties in sustaining the blood supply as donations are generally lower.”
He urged donors to give blood this month before school exams finish and the vast majority of people take their summer breaks.
