Donor fall-off may lead to blood shortages

Hospitals face a severe shortage of blood unless the number of donors increases, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) warned today.

Speaking at the publication of the IBTS annual report for 2003, the chief executive, Mr Andrew Kelly said the number of donations last year dropped by 5.8 per cent compared with 2002.

There were 186,345 donations in 2003. However, more than 21 per cent of these were not accepted meaning that the IBTS only procured 146,078 usable blood donations last year. This was down on the 2002 figure of 155,056.

This problem is likely to be exacerbated following the decision in May this year by the IBTS to ban on people who have spent three years or more in the UK between 1980 and 1996 from giving blood.

The service expects that approximately  5,000 regular donors, or 5 per cent of the number of people giving blood annually,  will now no longer be able to give blood.

Mr Kelly said new initiatives were required to deal with demand from hospitals which had increased by 6 per cent in the first six months of 2004.

The IBTS National Medical Director, Dr William Murphy said today: "Providing a safe supply of blood and blood components does not get easier - in 2003 the IBTS introduced new restrictions to prevent a new disease endemic in the USA, West Nile Virus, being spread through blood transfusion in Ireland. We also learned in 2003 that vCJD had been passed from one individual to another in the UK by a transfusion for the first time."

Another new measure were restrictions introduced to combat West Nile Virus. Dr Murphy said when it became apparent that the virus could spread  via transfusion in 2002, the IBTS deferred accepting blood donations from everyone returning from the US, Canada, and Mexico for four weeks after their return.

The IBTS chairwoman, Ms Maura McGrath, said the service was committed to increasing its expertise through participation in research and development programmes, possibly in partnership with the medical schools.

According to the annual report, more than 67,000 people who may have been exposed to a potentially  infectious batch of Anti-D have been tested under a screening programme, according to the annual report. Of these, 994 have tested positive for Hepatitis C.

The service earned more than €99.3 million in 2003 from selling blood products to hospitals, down slightly on the €106.8 million earned in 2002. Total running costs for the service last year were just over €94 million.

Following the reversal of a controversial plan drawn up by the blood bank in 1999 to end testing in Cork,
the annual report notes that a design brief for a new  €28 million testing centre in Cork has been submitted to the Department of Health.

Pending the completion of this facility, the Cork IBTS unit has moved to a temporary base at St Finbar's Hospital. Equipping this unit will cost an estimated  €3 million.