Blood has been imported from the UK for the first time since 2022 to address a shortage of some types, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service has confirmed.
A total of 270 units of O RhD Negative, A RhD Negative and B RhD Negative were imported early on Friday morning from the NHS Blood and Transplant organisation in England.
Dr Andy Godfrey, IBTS medical and scientific director, said a sustained surge in hospital demand and increasing trends in service provision for patients had led it to review how it manages its supply of rarer blood groups and they are now liaising with other blood establishments to supplement stocks as needed.
Dr Godfrey said before 2020, the IBTS imported blood regularly from abroad but had only done so four times over the last five years, the most recent being in December 2022.
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“It’s not routine, but it’s not rare. It’s not specifically to IBTS, we see other blood establishments around Europe importing blood from time to time as well,” he said.
“Earlier this year, the NHS Blood and Transplant service imported from Wales and we’ve seen France importing from Germany over the last few years ago. These arrangements are becoming more common as blood establishments are trying to match our blood better to our patients.”
Dr Godfrey said specifications for blood, which are determined by the European Blood Agency, had got stricter over time, which meant “the way we use our blood is a little bit more prescribed so it’s become more common to rely on other countries”.
“This combination of increased demand, restricted usage in terms of specifications and increased deferrals means that we’ve arrived at a point where it wasn’t critical but getting towards a pinch point,” he added.
“The alternative would have been to escalate to an amber alert, which would be to ask hospitals not to utilise blood for routine surgeries and patients would have seen their operations cancelled.”
The IBTS made an appeal for donors in recent weeks, resulting in the collection of 8,893 units of blood, but said the deficit in supply of RhD Negative blood groups remains.
“The ongoing issue is because RhD Negative donors are a small proportion of the overall donor population which is now being exceeded by the increasing patient demand for RhD Negative blood,” said Dr Godfrey.
“Optimising blood utilisation across jurisdictions in Europe is now routine practice and blood services are encouraged to have collaborative arrangements in place. Preventing any adverse impact on patient care is always our priority so, instead of restricting supply to hospitals, we are moving to following routine practice and liaising with other blood establishments to share these limited resources.”
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