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.

I'm near the boarder so I've just checked on Wales donor site and managed to book an appointment for next week.

43 minute queue currently to use their website to look up location to donate

They used to as I often saw the truck in the big Tesco but can’t say I’ve seen them for a long time.

Why are there staffing issues all of a sudden? there wasn't in 2019.

Its everywhere and whilst many might have taken early retirement after the pandemic, these would be the people mainly in their 60s or at a push late 50s.

These would also be people in higher paid employment, i doubt too many nurses, carers, van drivers or air port staff can retire early.

I’ve been donating blood for nearly 30 years and still it’s so difficult to book an appointment. Why??

logged onto to website, an hour waiting time

They don't need my group by dp was called to donate again quicker than normal (o+)

Iron that you ingest (whether in food or supplements) takes a couple of weeks to be processed by the body and turned into haemoglobin (which is what they test for). So an iron tablet on the day of donation won't make any difference to your iron levels in the test.

^ haemoglobin levels in the test, that should say

DH and I had appointments for today. I've been donating for years, but he's a first timer with an unknown blood type.

Both appointments cancelled by text. Next available ones within a 50 mile radius in December....

We're quite happy to go, but they have to actually, y'know, take it. I can well believe there's a staffing issue, but its not an unforeseen one.

Does anyone know if there is a way of not fainting when you give blood? I troed at university and ended up blacking out.

I'd love to try again if there's a way of preventing this.

@ginnybag Same here - I've not donated for years because a) They seem to have far fewer blood drives than they used to and b) When I have managed to get an appointment at one near me it's been cancelled on the day.

My doctor sister says the shortage is mainly due to a lack of resource - they don't have the staff and money nowadays to run as many blood drives.

Nevertheless, I'm in the queue to try and book an appointment at my nearest donation centre, about 30 mins away from me.

Thank you for this thread. I'm O- and hate needles with a passion. But after seeing this I feel its my duty to!

I'm also O neg and have given blood for years (although currently pregnant), and recently it's just got so much harder!

Very few local sessions
No appointments free at these sessions
New rule that you had to wait 28 days after a cold (had to cancel about 3 appts in a row last winter)
Then you finally get there and the poor staff are run off their feet, everything's an hour late... the 8 mins it takes me to give blood somehow translates into 2-3 hours away from work!!!

Last time I filled in the feedback form and complained. Made it clear it wasn't the staff but the system, - if they actually want people's blood (for free) they need to shape up.

Most people just don't faint tbh. I've never fainted - I just don't look when they put the needle in.

They now insist on you drinking quite a lot of water before you donate, as it helps prevent it, and they suggest you do leg exercises during the donation itself, as test helps keep the BP up.

It happens to a lot of people on the first donation (including me - I've now done over 50.) It only happened once since, on a very hot day, in the chippy after... So if it's happened once, it doesn't mean it will happen again. However, I do have a friend who's been asked not to donate, as she was a persistent fainter. So it depends on the individual to some extent.

This wouldn't be so much of an issue if we were able to donate blood for our own use.

Sorry, that's not helpful, but I think you either faint or don't. I don't think there's a trick to it.

They’ve made it very difficult to donate locations wise.

I know lots who won’t go because centres are no longer mask mandated and people don’t want to risk covid again.

Eh? So the country would have to store the donated blood for each of the 60+ million people, for when they need it?

What about children who can't donate?

Also, you know blood doesn't last forever, right? It goes off.

And the issue is staffing, not people being willing to donate.

Donating blood "for your own use" is quite possibly the stupidest thing I've heard this week.

You sometimes can if you've a planned operation coming up, can't you? But it would depend on why you're having it. Mostly, though, it's because we're not terribly good at predicting when we need it for emergencies- I'm planning not to have an accident, rather than planning to have batches of my own blood ready for it.

Planned elective operations are often not the scenarios where people need pints and pints of blood.

For anyone in Scotland, this is where you can make an appointment to give blood. There are lots of local sessions.

www.scotblood.co.uk/

Exactly!

And you'd need to keep replenishing your emergency store because the blood would go off. So staff time and energy would be spent collecting blood that was ultimately destined to just go off - what a waste!

Far better idea to take it from those who are healthy and give to those who need it. It's not public willingness that's the issue, it's having the staff available to run the blood donation clinics - same story as the rest of the NHS unfortunately.

@Octomore thank you. Nothing to do with the needle, I just got halfway through and said to a passing nurse that I felt a bit funny... And that was that!

I have been told since that I have a low ish blood pressure, maybe if I have a load of water and something salty and sugary beforehand that might help!