NHS Blood and Transplant Service: Blood Stocks

Lord Rooker Excerpts

Tuesday 30th July 2024 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Rooker]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the response by donors to the national alert regarding low levels of blood stocks issued by NHS Blood and Transplant Service.

[Lord Rooker (Lab)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, and I declare that, until my late 70s, I was a regular donor, which stopped when I met with chemotherapy.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, there has been an excellent response from altruistic donors since NHS Blood and Transplant issued an amber alert for O-group blood on 25 July. I thank everyone who has booked an appointment and who has already donated, because they will have helped save up to three lives each. Since Thursday, 25,000 new donors have registered, website traffic has increased almost fourfold and booked appointments have doubled. O-negative stocks have risen from 1.7 days to 2.9 days.

[Lord Rooker (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend. That Answer is excellent news, but volunteers have to be treated carefully. There are 800,000 of them. Can my noble friend tell me how many of the 25 donor clinics are open seven days a week? That is for the convenience of the donors. Secondly, why was it left until there were only 1.6 days of O-negative blood left before the alert was issued? Finally, what are the stocks of the special blood, of any group, that is required for newborn babies?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I will need to come back to my noble friend on that last question, but I assure your Lordships’ House that action was taken to increase the number of donors and the supply of the necessary blood even before the alert was announced. An alert creates better conditions, because more people come forward and rally. I thank them very much for that. On the donor centres, it is possible, of course, to give blood every day of the year apart from Christmas Day.