Donors: Ethnic Groups
(asked on 25th June 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on public health campaigns to encourage BAME (a) blood, (b) stem cell, (c) living organ and (d) deceased organ donation in each of the last three years.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for the collection, manufacturing and issuing of blood products to the National Health Service in England; for organ and tissue donation in the United Kingdom; and for the British Bone Marrow Registry (BBMR), to which it recruits registered blood donors to be potential stem cell donors.
NHSBT recovers its costs for collecting, testing, processing and supplying blood through the prices that are charged to NHS hospitals in England. Funding for organ donation and retrieval is provided by way of subsidy from the Department.
NHSBT organise campaigns to encourage living organ, deceased organ and blood donation by people from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background. NHSBT campaign spend is set out in the following table.
| Living organ donation | Deceased organ donation | Blood donation |
2015/16 | £10,000 | c£140,000 | £279,000 |
2016/17 | £76,000 | c£140,000 | £295,000 |
2017/18 | £118,000 | £95,000 | £650,000 |
Source: NHS Blood and Transplant
In addition, this year there will be a new, extensive campaign focussed on increasing organ donors from black and Asian backgrounds.
NHSBT manage the NHS Cord Blood Bank and the BBMR which are part of the Anthony Nolan and NHS Stem Cell Registry.
NHSBT has not allocated a campaign spend specifically for stem cell donation in the last three years, all activity has been delivered in-house e.g. leaflets, letters. However, as individuals are approached to join the BBMR when they first donate blood, the blood campaign spend also contributes to stem cell recruitment.