NHS Scotland calls for 'extra special effort' by donors amid national blood type shortage

NHS Scotland said donors of certain blood types will be contacted to come forward after a national shortage alert was issued.

National stocks of O negative and O positive blood have fallen to “unprecedentedly low levels” after increased demand from hospitals and high levels of unfilled appointments at donor centres created “a perfect storm”, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) said.

It is just the second time such an alert has been issued, with the only other occasion coming in October 2022.

While NHS Scotland said it was not “directly affected” by the shortages seen in England, health experts asked members of the public to make an extra effort to donate over the summer.

Scottish supplies aim to be between five to seven days worth for all eight blood groups, but currently two groups do not have the desired amount.

NHS Scotland is asking those with blood group O or A to come forward and said it is likely those within these groups will be contacted.

Professor Marc Turner, director at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, said: “NHS Scotland is not directly affected by the shortage of blood group O red cells in England and therefore we are not in amber alert and have adequate blood stocks to meet clinical demand.

“We are not currently supplying blood to England, but are in regular contact with NHSBT colleagues and can provide mutual aid if requested to do so.

“However, we are asking people to continue to make an extra special effort to donate over the summer holiday period when blood stocks are traditionally low.

“On average, Scotland needs to fill around 3,500 appointments each week and there are currently over 1,800 appointments still to fill in donor centres over the next two weeks.

“Our donor centres in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness still have a lot of appointments available which can be booked at www.scotblood.co.uk.”

NHSBT wrote to hospitals on Thursday to issue an “amber alert”, asking them to restrict the use of O type blood to essential cases and use substitutions where possible.

The alert is triggered when blood levels fall under two days’ worth of stock, with stocks of O negative, the universal blood group, currently at 1.6 days while overall national stocks of all blood types is 4.3 days.

It allows hospitals to implement their emergency measures to minimise usage, move staff to laboratories to vet the use of all O type blood and use patient blood management systems to minimise use of O type blood.

O negative, which makes up around 16% of hospital orders, is used in emergencies or when a patient’s blood type is unknown, with air ambulances and emergency response vehicles carrying supplies of the blood type.

NHSBT said the ongoing cyber incident which affected several London hospitals last month had also impacted O negative stocks, with a 94% increase in demand compared with the same period last year.

Several hospitals, including King’s College Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’, declared a critical incident, cancelled operations and tests and were unable to carry out blood transfusions after the attack on the pathology firm Synnovis.

Women can donate blood once every four months, while men can donate once every three months.

The NHS needs to collect 1.45m units of blood and have up to 200,000 new blood donors each year to replace those who stop donating and to ensure the right mix of blood groups for future patients’ needs.

For more information on how to donate blood in Scotland, head to the ScotBlood website.