Giving Blood

[MarieG10]

Does anyone else experience this?

The blood donation service has been cut back so much. I used to donate plasma but the centre shut, which meant for me to continue donating was either a 1 hour or 1 1/2 hour journey. I'm public spirited but this is a farce. I therefore reverted to giving blood. As I'm 0- my blood group is very valuable. So I've tried booking an appointment after needing to change what I have booked, and also receiving a pleading letter saying they need my blood group. There is no availability at any centre near me up to October and I can't see appointments past then. I don't think they are that desperate if they don't have availability for people to actually donate.

Yes i have this too. I have to book 4 months in advance and I cant always be sure if i will be able to get childcare so occasionally i have to try and rearrange and that means waiting another 4 months. Online it says you can drop in but I tried that once and they looked at me like i was asking them to give me blood and the woman told me in a stroppy way how busy they were with people who had actually made appointments.

I used to be a regular giving at my local village hall. I used to take the kids with me after I collected them from school across the road but they stopped doing it from there. God knows why it was always packed.

I'm happy to go further to do it but I'm lucky if I can actually get an evening appointment even with several months notice!

They’re not all that desperate because they use much less blood that they used to. However if you’re O- you’re still useful, and it seems unlikely that they’re 100% booked up until October. Have you tried the app. It’s a bit fiddly but it is quite a good way to find random appointments.

Unfortunately they are cutting back the service so they have less donation slots available - but the actual need is still there

I'm unable to donate but my husband donates platelets -and had a call last week asking him to come in ASAP as they were desperate - he went the next day

The need isn’t the same though iolaus. Apart from Sickle Cell which still needs lots of transfusions, most other uses have significantly reduced.

I book way in advance; I gave blood this week so booked my next appointment while I was there, as it's so much easier than trying to remember.

I agree that it's difficult to book in without travelling, though; I often take a couple of friends along with me who otherwise wouldn't be able to donate.

I tried to make an appointment near me but ended up giving up. The site kept saying there were free appoitments at a certain location but when I clicked on the date, they were fully booked
It make you wonder how desperate they are for donations.

Yeah, it used to be easy, now it's a right pain and you have to book way in advance. If you comment on the Facebook page, you get a 'let me help you book a session' reply, but not a reply to the general issue. I've also been made to feel like I was inconveniencing them by turning up. I'm guessing it's a combination of they've cut back sessions and staff are overworked, and they've got better at targeting when and where and what type of blood they need so only do the session they need to. I kind of get that; at the end of the day the service is to get blood, not to make us feel good, but I think they need to be better at communicating what they are doing.

Also, I'm O- and I occasionally get texts asking me to donate on a specific time or date, presumably because someone somewhere has an operation and is in need. It's not always viable but if I can donate I always will purely because I think it's such an important thing to do.

Yes it’s very difficult to get appointments - I have to book months in advance in a place that’s difficult to get to when I’m not even sure I’ll be able to make that time!

Less blood is needed but more plasma is needed because they make so many other products from it. It’s very hard for the blood service. They aren’t funded and one donation costs the blood service $60 which accounts for the staff, equipment, transport and storage and processing of blood products. It should be a government funded thing in my opinion.

I used to have these issues when I used the "pop up" donation clinics, the type that they set up in a village hall. I once went a year between donations as it was so difficu!t to get an appointment.
However, the last few years I've been donating at my local city centre donor centre, they have Saturday morning slots, half price parking and really friendly staff. I get a reminder text and go online to book and can usually get an appointment for the following saturday.
I don't know if all city centre donor centres are like this or if I'm just very lucky with mine (Bradford).

I donate at the West End permanent donor centre in London and I’m very happy with it.

First off, thank you to all who donate, you make a massive difference to my quality of life.
I used to donate and had no idea it had gotten so difficult since I was medically able to donate myself.
I have (blood) Serum eye drops and I am not medically fir enough for them to use my own blood so I depend on generous donations, thankfully for my medication blood type doesn’t matter.
Without this medication I would loose the rest of my useful sight, have a great deal of pain and even higher risk of serious inflection.
This is a fairly new treatment developed so there is still a need for wider blood products and a wish I could make it easy for you to donate but what I can do is thank you from the bottom of my heart for making the (it seems) large effort to donate. People like me who need the blood products are extremely honoured that you do this for us.

I really wish I could donate! The donor centre near me is only open during working hours - I can take a long lunch of up to 1.5 hours but I’m such a slow bleeder that by the time I’ve walked twenty minutes there and back I can’t fit it in!

The Evening ones are booked up so far in advance I can’t commit to them because my job requires flexible out of hours working with up to 4 weeks notice :/

Jen, I'm so pleased that blood donations help with your condition. I am a donor (previously blood, Ow platelet) and I love to see the graphics at the centre which shows the real people who benefit from donations.

I agree however that the booking system is ridiculous. It's cumbersome, user-unfriendly and very few convenient places/times to donate. I presume it was too costly to have the number of mobile units that used to be very common.

I now give at a static centre about 20 miles away. Due to distance, I can only do weekend appointments, which are scarce.

I don't feel as though my donation is unwanted, or unappreciated. But I certainly feel as though the service can't be bothered to make it easy nor convenient to make a donation. Simply investing in their website would be a huge development. I wonder whether they ever engage with donors to get feedback on the system?

The donation itself is now very comfortable, easy and efficient. And the staff are lovely.

I currently use the app...there are no appointments at any centre within 10 miles of where I live in Yorkshire. I am beginning to think they can't need me that much and may be time to give up donating despite being O Neg

I used to make my next appointment after donating, but last time they told me I had to do it myself. What if you don't have computer access?

I used to be able to donate in my village, but now the closest session is half an hour away.

I'm O Neg too OP, and got told once on the phone to just show up and they'd fit me in. So I did, and announced "I'm O Neg, the man in the phone said I should come" and they did indeed fit me in!

YANBU. I haven’t donated in several years due to a variety of reasons (low iron, pregnancy, baby, pregnancy, miscarriage, pregnancy, baby etc) but right now the issue is I can’t get into my online account. It takes me through some time consuming security steps and just tells me to call them when I try and log in and the problem is that with two young DC it can be tricky to make a phone call! It won’t even let me see when the nearest sessions are online, I have to log in. I realise I need to get it sorted but they could make the whole system much more user friendly

Give them a call and explain you're O- and as it's a very much needed type they should be able to fit you in sooner. I have A+ with the Ro subtype which they use to treat sickle cell disease, and they told me to call for earlier appointments if there's nothing available online.

I only knew I was A+ and didn't think it was that needed, and like you was getting frustrated with how long I had to wait for an appointment, so just stopped going. They called me to ask me to donate again and when I explained why I'd not made much effort to go back, they told me about the Ro subtype I have and said there are appointments kept aside for the more uncommon blood types. When I rang I got an appointment for around 3 weeks later.

I also donate at the west end center and it’s great but now I’m in London less I definitely would struggle with the booking, I’ve looked recently and there’s very little near me.

I had the same problem trying to book online. When I donated last year i mentioned it and they told me to ring them direct for an appointment as so many people don't turn up for their appointments. So I do this now and get one every time.
Maybe try this?