NHS has issued it's first ever Amber alert for blood supplies

[BluSquid]

news.sky.com/story/nhs-declares-first-amber-alert-as-blood-supplies-drop-low-12718647

They need more donations, especially O-. They're talking about postponing non-critical surgeries, which have probably already been delayed so much thanks to covid.

My husband is O-, how do I find where he can go give blood?

Just checked their website and my nearest centre for giving blood is over 100 miles away. Nothing local at all. No wonder they're short if there's no local centres anymore.

www.blood.co.uk

I've been trying to get an appointment to give blood for a few months! I live in a small city...

I’ve no idea what my blood type is. How would I find out. Tried looking on the nhs app but that doesn’t tell me anything useful.

Bump.

Sadly I am no longer able since I take anticoagulants but have given a fair few pints in my time and would if I could.

It's really not easy to find somewhere to give blood nowdays

Thanks! Husband is in the queue for booking a blood donation! Xx

You could ask your GP if it's in your medical records? Otherwise I think you'd just donate and they'd test it afterwards.

Same here.

We don’t have anywhere local to donate blood. Everything here was stopped due to the pandemic and they’ve never started up again.

My nearest place to donate is too far away, and involves vast expense to get there.

It’s a shame, as the sessions were always very busy and I still see people posting on FB groups all the time asking about donating blood, so I’m sure if they started the local sessions they’d be very popular

Looks like their staffing issues are more of a factor, the last mobile sessions I've been to have been rammed and the donor centre is always booked up. Staff seemed run off their feet at the mobile session.

We also tried to donate recently. Couldn't get an appointment for months and even then it was way too far away. Far too restrictive.
They need to sort out their system, I'm afraid. We did what we could!

On the radio they were saying it's as much a shortage of staff as of blood itself.

I'm really surprised to hear that! They have an excess of appointments available at Bradford, Bristol, Liverpool, London Tooting, London Westfield Stratford City, Luton and Southampton, in case anybody is close to any of these locations.

It is only tested when you have a baby or prior to an operation or when you donate blood. It isn’t routinely tested on the NHS & it costs around £60 if you want it tested.
GP surgery won’t always be told of your blood group after a baby or operation though.

I'm o neg - just checked and nearest place to give blood is 35 miles away, I will do it when I'm next in the city, but it doesn't make it easy for people to donate!

I’m Rh negative & literally can’t give my blood away! Every time I’ve tried to book, the appts are either really far away (2hrs) or no appts near for 3-4 months!

they don’t make it easy!

Unfortunately although I have the blood type I can no longer give blood due to receiving it years ago. Hopefully they can get their blood supply back up quickly. It's a shame that some centres are so far away to people.

Nearest ones to me are at least a 45 minute drive or a £35+ train fare and they all seem to close by 4.30pm at the latest. Not much use for anyone who works or has child care commitments.

i remember when they used to come to the office. Guess that has all stopped now due to COVID and WFH etc.

That's such a shame when there's so many people willing to help. It's beginning to feel like the NHS is on the way to a complete collapse now.

We're quite remote / countrysidey but near a huge hospital and it looks like the nearest blood donation place is 1hr30 mins away 🤔

Like, what?

I'm literally staring 10 pints of O- in the face 😂 this is frustrating!

I just tried 52 minute queue

I booked an appointment about 3 months in advance then it was cancelled a few days beforehand (this was for last week).