Blood transfusion service issues plea for donors ahead of bank holiday

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) has called on donors to make appointments as there is a critical need for blood with stocks continuing to be negatively impacted by the pandemic.

“Next weekend is obviously a bank holiday. We are hoping for a strong collection next week. So for some of our groups we are close to a pre-amber state. Certainly we don’t want to be getting in to the zone of an amber alert. That has a knock-on on the health system,” chief executive of the IBTS Orla O’Brien told Today with Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1.

The IBTS receives 500 to 600 donations a day running from Monday through Thursday. Between blood and platelets, they need to collect about 3,000 units of blood a week, 52 weeks of the year.

Ms O’Brien said Covid continues to cause problems for the service.