http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/fro...7HM1BLOOD.html
Surgery cancelled as blood donations hit three-year low
10/06/2005
Hospitals across the State have been asked to cancel elective surgery planned for the next four to five days due to a severe blood shortage, writes
Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent.
The request was made by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) which said it was currently experiencing "a serious reduction in blood donations".
"This is a problem that has arisen over recent months, despite intense efforts by the organisation to increase the numbers of donors visiting clinics," it said.
This is the first time in more than three years that the blood bank has had to appeal to hospitals to postpone non-urgent surgery due to blood shortages. The last time it made a similar appeal was in January 2002.
Andrew Kelly, chief executive of the IBTS, said the situation was under constant review. There were still blood supplies for emergencies, he confirmed.
"Despite intensive efforts by the IBTS to offset the decline in donations, we have been left with no alternative but to notify the hospitals that we are unable to meet their demands for blood at this time," he said.
"The board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service discussed the situation at its board meeting yesterday and regrets the impact of this decision on individual patients.
"We understand the inconvenience and upset it has caused," he added.
An estimated 3,500 elective procedures take place in hospitals across the State every week.
While not all these cases would require blood transfusions, a high proportion could.
Many of these procedures, such as hip replacement operations and tonsillectomies, will now have to be cancelled.
The IBTS requires 3,000 blood donations a week.
Three-quarters of its stocks are held in hospitals. A spokesman for the Health Service Executive said last night its National Hospitals Office was liaising with the blood bank and with hospitals which are now ascertaining their current level of blood stocks.
This would determine how much elective work had to be cancelled, he said.
Where operations have to be cancelled, hospitals will contact the patients concerned, the HSE spokesman added.
The IBTS has appealed to existing blood donors to give blood more regularly as well as to people who do not donate to consider giving blood.
"The very real difficulty is that without the generosity of donors, we cannot supply hospitals to meet patients' needs," Mr Kelly said.
"Recently introduced measures to reduce the risk of vCJD transmission have had an adverse affect on the available donor population.
"Since January 2005, attendance at blood donation clinics has dropped by almost 4,000 over the same period in 2004.
"While the demand for blood and blood products continues to rise, the numbers giving blood regularly have dropped, and this is unsustainable," he added.
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