Donor unable to give blood due to cutbacks

Deborah Hopkins of Telford was speaking after the blood donor service put out an urgent appeal for two rare blood types.

She said that she and her husband had been donors for 10 years, but that their local donation session in St George's had been cancelled with appointments at the nearest alternative booked up beyond September.

Her comments came after the NHS Blood and Transplant organisation issued an urgent appeal for O Negative and B Negative donors earlier this month.

Mrs Hopkins, 50, who has made more than 25 donations over the years, said the cancellation of some donation sessions means that a number of former donors are just not able to give blood.

She said: "our last donation was earlier this year. We normally go to St George's and we went to book and appointment after donating and we were told we couldn't.

"The staff said they were being made redundant and there will be no more donations there.

"I rang up and they said they could offer me one in March in St George's but that was cancelled two weeks before and that was it. I rang up to see what other venues there are and it was like a call centre and the lady said we can only offer you Brookside in May but they were all full with no walk-in appointments.

"There are two days for the whole of Telford and no walk in appointments.

"The next time they will be in Telford is September and I was told all those appointments are gone too."

Mrs Hopkins said she was told her nearest other donation sessions would be in Wolverhampton or Shrewsbury.

She said: "I am self employed and I struggle to get to St George's for the allotted time so there is no way I could get to Shrewsbury or Wolverhampton but I am passionate about giving blood.

"It can't just be me there have to be lots of people who are as frustrated as me.

"After all these years of donating we have just stopped. It is just as frustrating and such a shame."

Mike Stredder, director of blood donation at NHS Blood and Transplant said they had cut back on the number of donation sessions due to a fall in the demand for blood.

He said: “We made some changes to our blood donation programme in the area back in March. We reduced the number of blood donation sessions that we hold across Shropshire and Staffordshire because there is a reduced national demand for blood from hospitals. We closed many of our smaller six bed donation sessions and are asking people to donate at larger nine bed sessions nearby if they are able. We can collect the blood patients need more effectively and keep costs for the wider NHS as low as possible at larger sessions. These changes are happening nationally, not just in the Shropshire area.

“We appreciate that when we do make any changes to sessions that it may be too difficult for many people in rural areas to travel to an alternative session and we thank them for the lives they have already saved. When people have difficulty booking an appointment they often worry that there will be a shortage. When in reality, the fact that our sessions are fully booked is a good thing because it means we are collecting the blood we need.

“Blood is collected and distributed on a regional and a national basis and we plan our sessions carefully to collect the right amount of blood that hospital patients need. Any changes will not affect our ability to supply blood to local hospitals, so patients will still receive the blood they need. It will mean we can be more targeted in what blood types and volumes we collect based on patient need.”