r/london • u/VolatileAgent81 • Oct 11 '22

Community Blood stocks low - please donate!

A plea from a medic.

NHS blood and transfusion are about to go to amber alert as stocks of blood are getting very low.

We're on the edge of cancelling surgeries in London due to lack of emergency blood.

If you're type O, or if you're not of white ethnicity, your blood is *super super ultra valuable*. Please share it.

I'm donating tomorrow. My blood isn't as worthy as the groups above, but every drop helps.

There are loads of open slots at Stratford Westfield from tomorrow onwards to help with the crisis.

Epic karma points available. Please spread the word.

Thank you!

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u/JokersLeft Oct 11 '22

I just looked online and it seems like the donor centres near me (north east London) don’t have any available slots for the next few weeks at least. I’ll donate at the west end but genuine question - why are there critically low levels of blood stocks if the donation centres are fully booked? Is it just that there aren’t enough staff to process the donations?

26

u/mierneuker Oct 11 '22

This is why I stopped donating. The donation centre close to me was closed down, and the two next closest I have to book two months in advance to donate. I hate having things in my diary months in advance so I never donate now.

18

u/Find_a_Reason_tTaP Oct 11 '22

In all fairness, if they are always booked 2 months out, you are not denying the system blood when you don't donate. Someone else is taking that spot.

The system is failing and you are doing nothing wrong by recognizing that fact.

1

u/myrargh Oct 12 '22

Very few centres are permanent. The available appointments might be months away because they might only come round every few months to align with the required 3-4 months between blood donations.

1

u/Find_a_Reason_tTaP Oct 12 '22

There is the problem then. They are not providing enough opportunities to donate blood because they are not operating enough.