Hospitals Warned of Blood Shortage

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Hospitals Warned of Blood Shortage

UK Independent Online (12/14/98)

The British National Blood Service (NBS) has warned every hospital in England that there is a blood shortage. The agency also issued instructions on how to conserve blood supplies. Donors are becoming more scarce, while hospitals continue to use some 10,000 half-liter units of blood daily and demand rises at 3 percent to 4 percent a year. Hospitals will be required to establish new rules for blood transfusions and investigate ways to use patients' own blood by March 2000. Earlier this year, the NBS announced that all blood would be screened for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which will more than double the cost of collecting. Also, the agency ruled that all blood products should be made from plasma imported from abroad, which will reduce an important income source. Officials worried that there has been a decrease in donors, although a recent Kings Fund report found that there was no significant shrinkage in the donor pool. The study did find that more potential donors were being turned away because they might be at risk for hepatitis or HIV.

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