Blood Bank Advises Hospitals to Postpone Routine Surgery

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has written to hospitals advising them to postpone elective surgery owing to the acute shortage of blood in the country. Scheduled operations such as hip replacements may now not take place in the coming weeks because not enough people are coming forward to donate blood.

"It is unfortunate that we find ourselves in the position of having to take this extreme measure but the public must be aware that a patient in hospital cannot undergo a surgical procedure if sufficient quantities of their blood type is not available. If people are not donating blood we cannot obviously guarantee a steady supply to hospitals."

Recently a patient in the West received over 40 units of blood during a. If those 40 people had not donated blood within the previous month that patient could have died. Blood was available to the patient who has since made a full recovery.

There are 1.2 million adults in Ireland who have never given blood. While most of these cite lack of time or they just never got around to it as reasons for not donating, the IBTS acknowledges that successive blood tribunals do little to encourage a culture of blood donation. "The public must not allow the tragedies of the 80s to affect their decision to give blood in 2002. The IBTS today is operating on radically different procedures, tests and resources than it did in the past. Blood today has never been safer. However, the biggest threat to the blood supply in 2002 is the fact that there may not be any available when you need it most."

Blood donor clinics this week will take place in Ashbourne, Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Belturbet, Ballybay and Portlaoise. Phone 1850 731137 for further details.