NHS Blood supply drops to ‘severe’ levels amid Covid pressure

Blood supplies to NHS hospitals have dropped to critical levels again as Covid infections drive donation cancellations.

NHS Blood supplies have dropped to worrying levels for the third time during the pandemic as increasing Covid infections put pressure on national stocks.

According to reports in the Health Service Journal, NHS Blood and Transplant, responsible for blood supplies to the NHS, are close to issuing an “amber alert” as stock levels become have “severe”.

The last time the NHS body issued warnings to hospital was November last year, when it declared a “critical incident” and during the first Omicron wave in December, as previously revealed by The Independent.

As with previous warnings donation levels have dropped due to Covid infections driving more appointments to be cancelled

According to the HSJ the current stocks are worse than they previously have been due to high levels of emergency demand, coupled with Covid pressures and the continuation of planned surgeries.

NHS Blood and Transplant said subsequently stock levels have dropped to similar levels seen in January and November when it previously issued alerts to hospitals.

The NHS organisation confirmed it has written to hospitals asking them to make appropriate demands for stocks.

Prior to November the last time NHSBT declared an incident over low stocks was due to bad weather and snow in 2018 during the “beast from the east” storm and in Cornwall in 2019, which resulted in decreased donation levels.

If national blood supplies drop to two days the organisation would be forced to issue an amber alert meaning hospitals may have to postpoine elective operations.

An NHS Blood and Transplant spokesperson said: “Currently, we are continuing to supply hospitals with all the blood they need. Blood stocks have fallen but we are doing everything we can to prevent issuing an amber alert.

“We are experiencing staff shortages at many of our donor centres and mobile teams which has left our operations vulnerable from increases in short-term sickness - this has unfortunately led to some appointments being cancelled. To address this we are redeploying staff from elsewhere in NHSBT, using agency staff and contacting ex-employees.

“We have also increased our marketing activity to attract donors to give blood in town and city centre donor centres which have good appointment availability.

“We are expecting a difficult few months, and will continue to work with hospitals to manage blood stocks.

“While many sessions held in community venues such as church halls are full, the blood donor centres in cities currently have unfilled appointments, So we urgently need more people to make appointments to give blood at our 25 permanent donor centres.

“If you are one of our amazing regular donors please make and keep an appointment. If you have never donated before, now is a great time to make your first donation. You will be helping the NHS at an important time. Every appointment counts.”