Despite a positive response to the Red Cross Blood Service’s call to arms Maitland’s blood supply has dropped to a critical level due to an increased demand.
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The Mercury reported on page 1 on Monday (see tearout) that the Red Cross Blood Service had activated an emergency blood appeal across Maitland as blood products tumbled to less than two days’ supply.
An increased demand from Maitland Hospital has since seen blood stocks drop further to one days’ supply of O negative and one and a half days’ supply of O positive despite more than 40 additional donations already this week.
Blood service spokeswoman Jemma Falkenmire said they had received a very good response from their blood signal on social media but said more was required.
“Appointments are looking very healthy this week but next week is still a concern, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (appointments for) next week are quite low,” she said.
“We really want to thank people for rolling up their sleeves this week but unfortunately we need more.
“We’ve had a higher demand from the hospital in both those blood groups and the problem we’re having across the state is that a lot of people can’t donate because of cold and flu symptoms.”
O negative is the universal blood type that can be given to anyone in an emergency while O positive is the most common blood type in the country and is found in more than 40 per cent of Australians.
Ms Falkenmire said blood donations helped thousands of patients every day.
“Demand depletes stocks very quickly,” she said.
“Blood has such a short shelf life as well and at the moment we need to help patients across the country.
“These could be cancer patients, new mums, people involved in road crashes - there are so many reasons why people could need blood.
“We need to go above and beyond to get stocks back up to a level that we would be comfortable with.”
Donors are needed in Maitland early next week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. To donate blood visit donateblood.com.au or phone 131495.