Blood donations - still important?

[ChinBristles]

Hello

When I were a lass in the 90s, there were lots of adverts about giving blood, how important it was. And blood drives and vans coming round to make it easy to donate.

In my city in Scotland there is only ONE blood donor centre and I never hear of vans or adverts.

I know there are more synthetic options now but why is much less of a thing now? (I have booked in to start giving again, now that I no longer get tattooes etc!)

Thanks

I have definitely experienced rude staff. The ones at my local site are miserable and many of them are just horrible.

Strange to hear about rude staff.
As I said upthread, there was a sign saying we were not to be rude to staff.
Possibly they get treated like GP receptionists so turn nasty like some of them do.

I have never had someone be rude to me at a donor session. Not once. I know most of them now - having gone for years - and they are nowt but lovely.

Our work bumped into them on their Christmas night out and we were invited to join them 🤤. It was a giddy couple of hours 😊

I have tried to give blood and never been able to as my iron levels aren't high enough. I spent 6 months trying to get them up by taking iron supplies and multivitamin, making sure not to take with tea. Someone called me to try and book the next one after my last time ban had passed and couldn't find any appointment within 20 miles in the next 6 months. They seem to make it extraordinarily difficult!

I've donated for years and am shocked to hear of the difficulties some of you are having trying to donate. Such a pity. In Ireland you get a txt message regularly to remind me your nxt donation is due and I've never had a problem getting an appointment. They are usually evening clinics too where I am, even some weekend ones, so handy for most people. You also get a text saying where your donation was used. This is relatively new in last few years and it nice knowing I've helped someone with my donations. Mine often go to the national Children's hospital, a nurse said once there's something in my blood useful to newborns. The only disappointing thing is the choice of biscuits have really gone bad recently - cutbacks 🤷🤷

I'm embarrassed to admit that I only just booked my first appointment a few weeks ago. I have mean to do it for years. I found the church near me is used so it's perfect as I am off work that week. I will do it any time I can. It's been a long time coming..

Thing is, if the appointments are all taken then that's great!
The terrible thing would be if there were hundreds of available appointments!

@duvetfan no need to feel bad! Even if you give once, that's more than a lot of folk!

I am a rare group and have given my 31st pint recently. People who don’t give despite being able to seem selfish to me. If you would take a transfusion or ecpect your children/loved one to get blood when required then you should be willing to give it. I accept there are medical exemptions etc but other than that everyone should give it.

They have always been important. My sister donates all the time, and she does really put the pressure on me to donate... except I can't (mental health reasons).

Saying that, when the topic is raised on MN, a lot of people do say they find it hard to book appointments, or that the staff have been rude.

Yes it is so important! I waited a couple of years before I could get my first appointment due to covid and lack of available appointments in my area. Finally donated for the first time at the end of April. I'm B+ which seems to be in demand where I am, for treatment of sickle cell conditions.

I get regular texts asking me to donate due to my blood type can't at the moment unfortunately but will do once I'm allowed again.
They still do drives in my area just less frequently as otherwise people have to travel into the city which can be over 2 hours drive away.

O- here and donate as often as I'm allowed. Where I am there's 5 mobile sessions within 6 miles, so not hard to fit around work/other commitments. I find the app works well for managing appointments.

If you ask when donating there's a code which says what your blood will be used for. Last time they said mine would be going to premature babies. Felt great when I got the test through

I don't disagree that everyone should at least try, but given the fact that all the appointments are taken, and they aren't concerned about cancelling, I would say they have enough donations. It used to be so much easier - eg I used to donate at a session at my university students union or at a lorry that came to my workplace. The website isn't that easy to navigate, either, you have to be quite clever with it to find cancellations, for example.

If they really wanted more donations they'd put on more evening and weekend sessions. There are no weekend sessions in my area and the latest evening slots are at 6.45, no good to anyone with a long commute or other daytime/early evening commitments. I found it really hard to go when my DCs were younger as they had after school activities on the one same day (all our sessions are Wednesdays).

I don't like to boast about it but I'm A+ 😉. In many respects the booking system is much slicker than the old system of turn up and wait but it's not foolproof. My most recent donation I traveled to a town 10 miles away because nothing for my local town had appeared on the system. It got to the week before I was due to give and dates for my town appeared for the following month.
I had a session cancelled on the day last year then received a text the next day practically begging me to book in to donate.
The staff I have come across recently have all been lovely, friendly, chatty and very patient with my hard to find veins.

I’ve tried to donate blood but all the sessions near me are always fully booked. I assumed therefore that they had enough stock in my area or they would create more capacity.

I'm 0- as well and same experience. I'm supposed to have priority booking but never seems it. I used to give Plasma and then the nearest centre was Bradford which is 35 miles or Newcastle even further. A joke really considering how desperate they are

I am B- and constantly get texts asking me to donate. There is nothing local available for months.

The last time I went, I had an appointment. When I arrived, they said I had at least 90 minutes to wait before I was even seen. So I had to leave without donating.

There is so much room for improvement in every aspect. I’d also like to feel like I wasn’t inconveniencing the staff. I wonder if it’s a awful job? By the attitude of almost all of the staff, I’d say it must be.

Another AB+ here, can't give my blood away! Every time I look for an appointment there are none available.

Last time I managed to make one they apparently cancelled it but didn't notify me so when I turned up they didn't have me on their list. Turns out they are literally not allowed to turn away AB+ donors as they are so rare so they ended up taking my donation anyway.£

I had a similar experience — have never given blood, but a few years ago was looking at the criteria, and thought I'd be eligible and might as well make myself useful. Went online to see how to sign up, it wouldn't let me make an appointment without being registered, wouldn't let me register without being an existing donor. Phoned, and they told me I couldn't have an appointment unless I was registered, I had to register in person and to go to my local blood donor place at the next session. Went to the local blood donor place (hidden inside a warren if a building with no signs), got there, was asked if I had an appointment (no), asked if I was a registered donor (no) and effectively told to piss off by some miserable sod sat at a table by the door. Concluded it was some kind of insiders' club and I wasn't needed or welcome 🤷🏼‍♂️

@ClumpingBambooIsALie I registered as a new donor online last year so might be worth trying again😊

I meant to say, it was listed as a drop-in session, but I still got nastiness for having the temerity to turn up unregistered with no appointment (when the online and phone systems said they couldn't do anything with me if I hadn't already been registered in person).

How are people actually getting into the system? 😂

Really? I'll have a look at that, then, thanks. My experience was maybe five years ago, something along those lines? Maybe they worked out that an endless feedback loop isn't the best way to recruit…

I've been in the system since about 1990 so can't answer that one but I have found the staff to be unfailingly pleasant and friendly no matter how busy they are. I'm O+ and have never been chased to donate and only been cancelled on once when they had to cancel an entire session. I am on 57 donations.