Blood: South West

(asked on 12th October 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to increase the volume of blood donations in Plymouth and the South West.


Answered by
Matt Hancock Portrait
Matt Hancock
This question was answered on 22nd October 2018

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for the collection, manufacturing and issuing of blood products to the National Health Service in England. NHSBT needs to collect more than 6,000 blood donations every day to treat patients in need across England. Each donation has the potential to save or improve up to three lives.

NHSBT holds a number of national marketing campaigns throughout the year as part of wider activity to recruit 200,000 new donors each year to replace those who can longer donate for reasons such as illness, travel or pregnancy.

There are a number of blood donation sessions in Plymouth and the South West, including Plymouth Blood Donor Centre which is open Monday to Friday. From 20 November there will be an increase in blood appointments on Tuesdays, from 29 to around 110 appointments.

NHSBT regularly reviews its blood donation programme to ensure that the venues, staff numbers and session frequency are all in place to ensure that the amount of blood collected is sufficient to meet patient needs.

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