Scotland’s blood service issues first amber alert
Hospitals have been told to use Type O blood only when essential, while emergency operations, transfusions, transplants and cancer surgery continue normally.
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Hospitals have been told to use Type O blood only when essential, while emergency operations, transfusions, transplants and cancer surgery continue normally.
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) has issued Scotland’s first blood-stock amber alert, asking hospitals to use Type O blood only when essential. New hospital protocols aim to limit non-essential use, while emergency operations, blood transfusions, transplants and cancer surgery continue normally.
Blood stocks have been below target for several weeks, and Group O reserves have fallen below 2 days’ supply on several recent occasions, the service said. Its target is 5–7 days’ supply for every blood group.
O-negative blood can be used for transfusions across blood types, while O-positive is the most common blood type in the UK, found in about 35% of the population.
The service said donor numbers have fallen 24% over the past decade, a drop of about 30,000 people, and that it is finding it particularly difficult to attract younger donors. An NHS Fife notice also attributed the shortage to increased Group O use in recent months and disruptions to collection sessions caused by staffing and bad weather.
Hospitals need 135,000 units of blood a year, and donor appointments need to be fully booked throughout the year to meet that demand, said Dr Lorna McLintock, the service’s medical director. On average, 85% of appointments are filled at its donor centers in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness, where donor numbers have fallen for several months.
Debbie McNaughton, the service’s director of donor and transport services, told BBC Radio Scotland that about 2% of Scotland’s population is signed up to give blood and most donate once a year. She said donating 2 or 3 times a year could help make the supply more resilient.
McNaughton urged healthy people aged 17 or over to join the donor register. The NHS Fife notice asks all donors, particularly those with O-negative and O-positive blood, to urgently book appointments in the coming days, weeks and months. Appointments are available until the New Year at scotblood.co.uk or by calling 0345 90 90 999.
The alert was issued for an initial 4-6 weeks and will be kept under close review.
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