Number of people donating blood for the first time increases

There were 17,248 first time donors last year, compared to 16,508 in 2017 but only 1,859 donations came from those aged between 18 and 24.

The greatest number of donations, at 13,687, were made by those aged between 46 and 52.

The IBTS collected 129,589 donations from 79,628 people last year but the number was 977 less than the previous year.

“The blood transfusion service, like all public bodies, was challenged early on in 2018 with dealing with the effects of Storm Emma and the Beast from the East,” said IBTS chief executive, Andy Kelly.

He said the weather tested their contingency arrangements and how risk was managed and the organisation responded very capably.

When we asked donors to donate post the storms to replenish the blood suppy they responded magnificently and ensured that we could maintain the blood supply.

The blood bank's 2018 report shows that last year 44,160 people made one donation, 22,800 made two, 10,874 made three, 1,774 made four and there were 19 who made over five donations.

The report also shows that more men (44,220) than women (35,408) donated blood last year.

Health Minister, Simon Harris, said the report showed that a greater effort was needed to encourage more young people to donate.

“We see small numbers in the 18 to 24 age category donating and we need to see what we can do to improve that,” he said.

A total of 126,655 “productive” whole blood donations were processed last year, a reduction of almost 2% on the number processed in 2017.

The number of processed whole blood donations fell from 136,361 in 2013 to 128,030 in 2017, according to the report. It also shows that the production of platelets suitable for issue last year was also down by almost 3% compared to 2017.

The IBTS is exploring ways to ensure that 'universal' O negative blood type donations are used optimally after it emerged that some hospital were drawing on the donations for up to one in five transfusions.

“I am delighted to report that we have commenced a national dialogue on this issue and we are exploring ways in which the IBTS, prescribing clinicians and blood bank staff can collaborate on ensuring that O negative blood is used optimally," he said.

“This is an issue that is causing concern for blood services worldwide and workable solutions need to be found to ensure that blood services do not call on O negative donors unnecessarily,” he said.