SANBS still needs your As, Bs and Os

Blood stocks are slowly increasing but remain lower than the five days cover required.

This is according to the South African National Blood Service (SANBS).

Since the beginning of the year, the demand for blood has been consistently higher than the SANBS collections, especially for blood groups O and B.

“Thank you to our donors for increased collections, but we are not in the safe zone yet. We urge everyone including active donors, lapsed donors and potential donors to continue donating consistently to ensure ongoing adequate national stocks,” said Thandi Mosupye, SANBS senior manager of marketing, communication and brand.

To adequately cater for the country’s blood requirements, an allocation of 3 500 units of blood is needed daily to serve the needs of hospitals and clinical requirements. Five days’ cover on average is the minimum safe supply needed in the blood bank.

Currently, SANBS is collecting enough blood supply for three days, which is an improvement from 2.7 days last week but remains under the national requirement of five days.

“It is imperative to maintain a sturdy blood supply. When stock levels drop to 2.5 days or below, restrictions on blood orders is a likely eventuality and we are relieved that we are not there yet. This process is implemented when blood bank stocks are at the critical level of 2.5 days and below,” said Mosupye.

SANBS has 83 blood banks supporting close to 500 transfusing facilities. To allow access to this life-saving treatment without delay in a crisis, SANBS has also implemented around 450 emergency fridges that are stocked with only Group O red cells (the universal blood group that can go with groups O, A, B and AB) to be used in life-threatening bleeding situations.

Restrictions on orders is a process only applied in non-emergency situations and in consultation with doctors. In non-emergency situations, clinicians have time to wait for a crossmatch and the patient can receive blood from a corresponding blood group, not putting further strain on the scarce group O stock.

This way the universal group O units can be reserved for emergency and other group O patients.

Blood stocks are still below stable levels, to alleviate the situation, SANBS is appealing to everyone who is eligible to donate blood and willing to help save lives, to find their nearest donation centre by visiting www.sanbs.org.za, or call 0800 11 90 31, or go to @theSANBS on all major social media platforms.

To be eligible to donate blood, you have to be between 16 and 75 years old and weigh more than 50kg.

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