Donating blood is not made easy for people

[Floogal]

Listening to today's news, regarding the severe shortages of blood stocks and the call to get more donors has got me thinking.

https://www.itv.com/news/2025-06-09/nhs-calls-for-an-extra-200000-blood-donors-as-stocks-run-low

They don't exactly make it easy for people to donate as sessions are often at inconvenient times and places (week days and working hours when most people are working). And as a former donor myself, I was often made to feel that they were doing me a favour by letting me donate. Not forgetting the cancelled sessions.

Yes I remember my mother going to do it, it was very straightforward. I’ve tried to do it recently and it was quite complicated and inconvenient.

Banned from donating due to difficulty taking blood from me. Record is 5 attempts before giving up.

I get an impression that the blood donor service has been reduced in size over the last few years. Leading to fewer venues. Being fully booked is an impact of the Internet whereas when I first donated you had to book the next appointment by phone or at your previous session.

The reduced budgets no doubt one outcome of the previous government.

Thanks for the information regarding weight and donating. My appointment isn't until October, so I'll keep a check on myself. Seems a shame if I couldn't donate due to this stipulation.

My husband donated regularly following the death of his first wife ( she had lymphoma and needed lots of blood donations during her treatment). He would make an appointment for our local leisure centre pop up donation pod. It worked well for years and years. Then they started cancelling appointments at the last minute or ignoring the appointment system altogether and expecting him to sit for 2 hours. They were frequently rude. In the end he apparently developed anaemia ( from their test) and wasn't allowed to donate. He went to the doctors and had tests. No anaemia. Went back to donate in the next session. Rejected again. He hasn't been back.

My DH gives blood regularly. They are open til 7pm, so he goes after work. They call him often to make an appointment and again to remind him about his appointments. He is O neg though, so top blood for donation!

I've just given my 50th donation and was glad to get a thank you cert and a little pin acknowledging it. I agree that it's quite difficult to make an appointment as the slots all get booked up. I just book a long way ahead and probably donate less frequently, but when I do I find the sessions quite efficient and the staff are usually nice. Although the drop-in model often had a friendly community vibe it could take hours, so maybe the current system is an attempt to reduce waiting times once you actually get there? But being urged to donate and then finding it hard to make an appointment is frustrating.

I have had issues with them finding a vein before, but they always kept trying and found one eventually so I don't recognise others comments about having one go then having to cancel.

The severe overrunning, having to book months in advance and inconvenient times to try and fit in an appt however! I used to have 2 centres within 2 miles of my house, luckily I wfh and was allowed time during the day to go, but they were often running at least an hour over so I couldn't stay.

We have now moved and the nearest centre is 30 mins each way. I booked in March for an appt at the end of July! I will see how this goes, but if it is too much of a pain then I won't be able to go much more.

Plus the constant phone calls if you havent donated for a little while, each time they rang I told them I had moved, and had my head on sorting out my house and etc and would arrange a date when I was sorted, but they would ring every couple of days, which is why I booked the July appt just to get them to stop!

My husband had exactly this problem. Was tested at the doctors. No problem. Attempted to donate and refused again. Gave up.

I'm in the north east and I find the blood donation service is pretty efficient. Yes, you do usually have to make your appointment a good several weeks in advance if you want a convenient venue, but the booking app works well and the phone service is good too.

When I arrive at a session I am always treated really well, and the waits aren't too long.

Perhaps there is a lot of geographic variation in how well the service operates. I know that quite a lot of the blood donated in my region travels south to be used elsewhere, which suggests that they are able to harvest a goodly crop here

The only slight bugbear I have is that as an O- donor with useful blood I am hassled quite a lot with reminders to donate. I completely understand that of course, given the shortages, but it can feel a bit guilt-trippy, especially if I am not feeling brilliantly strong and energetic but feel I should donate anyway..

Yes. I'm pretty sure I've never ticked the box allowing phone calls as a form of communication, but I had missed calls on my mobile from NBS two days after my mum passed away. They weren't to know but needless to say I ignored the calls. Not great. There was a local session a day after her funeral, no way was I going to sign up for that!

I know what I’m doing this week and next’s, I’d far rather book now for a session, if they ate full for the next two months and I can’t get an appointment i call bull5h!+ that they are short or surely they’d open up more slots, surely…

But that's a good thing, isn't it? If someone's levels are just barely healthy, it may be hard for their body to correct them after their donation. The NHS has to err on the side of caution.

There is another current thread saying that the blood donation service is insufficiently careful and that it is causing anaemia in some women. They have to put the threshold somewhere, to balance the various concerns, and wherever they place it there will be some difficulty for the most borderline people.

I'm a fairly new donor - first did it in 2022,have managed 6 donations but have had four sessions cancelled by them one of which was one hour before my appointment! I spoke with one of the nurses/blood takers the following appointment and she said they are just getting back into how things used to be before Covid so using smaller, more convenient locations and doing more sessions but they do struggle for staff and when it gets very hot or cold in the bigger venues.
The staff are always lovely but i suspect it's like so much of the NHS, poorly managed by people on vastly inflated salaries which don't reflect their capabilities.

It's become a faff, although usually fine once you actually get to a session. I started donating because I saw them in a hall at university and just walked in. You can't do that now. Sessions are often in the middle of the day and months out. And the interface isn't good; lots of clicking in and out.

I assume they are suffering from lack of funding so have to maximise blood received for minimum cost. Fair enough though if they don't want your blood type. It's about getting the blood to patients, not making us feel good for donating! And I say that as a middlingly useful blood type when they want O -ve.

Then there was the time I was turned away because I'd had a dental injection six days before. That's pretty common, but the information on the website about could you donate or not didn't make it clear this would be an issue.

I'm happy for them to be some redundancy because emergencies happen. You can't predict this stuff 100%. I have had messages telling me where my blood went, although not always. And I've at least once had it used for research because it couldn't be used for a patient.

Out of curiosity I just googled to find out what the monetary value of a unit of blood is. Apparently US hospitals charge between $445 and $660.

Obviously the monetary value is a poor indicator of its actual (lifesaving) value, but it is a way of looking at just how privileged we are to be able to donate blood.

If you donated that much money, your bank account wouldn't 'grow it back' over the next couple of weeks like your body grows the blood back. So in that sense at least it is a virtually costless way to give a really significant amount of value.

The only real costs are the hassle of getting the appointment and hanging around for a bit and sometimes being sent home without donating. Worth it for creating hundreds of pounds worth of added value for a good cause!!!

I went yesterday and it was easy. I did book my appointment 2 months ago though.
Time slots from 1pm right up to 7pm. Easy registration at the time. Only thing is I never got the paperwork in the post but they can give it to you again at the appointment.
I was there an hour from arriving to leaving.

On the other hand, if you want someone to give you something so valuable it's not a good idea to make it really difficult for them. I was a regular donor for 20 years until there wasn't a convenient location. With a full time job (plus commute) and children taking a half day out to donate wasn't going to happen. When it was at or close to work it was always busy.

I have epilepsy. It is 99% controlled but if I do have a seizure I stay conscious and can still communicate etc. Im a grown adult who has had this since they were at university. I think I know whether I am capable of giving blood or not. But apparently, no I'm not. Apparently I cant be trusted to know my own condition and whether giving blood would put myself or others at risk.

Nothing to do with the medicine I'm on. Just that apparently I might have a sudden seizure that Ive never had before.

Im really surprised at these comments. I have no problem at all getting an appointment, never had one cancelled, staff are always lovely etc! My only complaint is they’ve stopped giving you a Penguin biscuit ( Im addicted to them and its the only time I’d let myself have one!)

I've never had one cancelled either. Is it entire sessions being cancelled, or do they just cancel individuals with less-needed blood in order to make room for more needed donations?

I gave up for a long time because at our local sessions you had to book 6 months in advance. I was self employed and it just didn't work for me.

Recently I did sobered a 7 day a week drop in centre a few miles away. That's been much more convenient.

I’m currently pregnant so can’t donate anyway but…

Used to pop in on my lunch break to donate a pint of O- but since Covid we wfh 100% of the time rather than going in once a week. There is zero locations close to where I am and I do not go into the city anymore as have no reason to do so. I remember when I started donating they used to have a bus that came to the village over but that was scrapped before covid if I remember correctly.

I’ve no problems donating at all but it needs to at least try to be convenient for those donating.

Are they whining again ?

I happily gave for 34 years - (O neg) until it was clear they aren't interested in collecting blood, just carping on.

Little tip: do not flood FaceBook with emotive appeals and then turn all the donors that turn up away (2 lads at work had this twice).

Another tip: when forcing people to make an appointment. at least pretend that it's their convenience that matters, not yours.

On the plus side, getting a text message when a donation was used did calm the soul. It was especially nice to have more than one about a single donation. I would always advise anyone who can to give blood. But don't expect it to be easy.