Blood donations double after NHS issued national shortage amber alert

Blood donations have doubled since the NHS issued an amber alert for a national shortage of O type blood five days ago.

Health minister Baroness Merron told peers in Westminster that O negative blood stocks have, as a result, risen from 1.7 to 2.9 days, with around four days being the normal level.

Since the alert, 25,000 new donors have registered and website traffic has increased almost fourfold, with booked appointments doubling.

Lady Merron said there has been “an excellent response from altruistic donors”, adding: “I thank everyone who has booked an appointment or who has already donated, because they will have helped save up to three lives each.”

The health minister told the House of Lords that the alert has created “better conditions” because more people “come forward and rally”.

NHS Blood and Transplant initiated the amber alert after a recent cyber attack affected London hospitals and reduced donations.

In a statement on July 25, it said: “A perfect storm of increased demand of O type blood from hospitals following the recent cyber attack, which has impacted London hospitals, and reduced collections due to high levels of unfilled appointments at donor centres in town and city centres, has caused stocks of blood to drop to unprecedentedly low levels.

“NHS Blood and Transplant has written to hospitals today to issue an “Amber Alert” asking them to restrict the use of O type blood to essential cases and use substitutions where clinically safe to do so.

“O negative and O positive donors are asked to urgently book and fill appointments at donor centres.”

An amber alert allows hospitals to implement emergency measures to minimise usage, move staff to laboratories to vet the use of all O type blood and use patient blood management systems to minimise use of O type blood.

Lady Merron said: “It is certainly the case that collections of blood have been lower in recent months due to the impact of sporting events, bank holidays, the weather – and all of these would have been manageable, it is the cyber attack that tipped the service over to the point in which it is now.”

She reassured peers that the shortage was caused by external factors, not internal factors to do with the service, which was the case in 2022, and that there has been no negative impact on elective surgery.

The minister added: “The approach that has been taken is to increase the number of appointment slots available, to launch new and innovative campaigns and also to seek to reduce the use of O negative blood.”

In terms of future resilience, she said: “Obviously, cyber attacks are going to be something we’re going to have to always have to mind and that is why the service, at my request, is working to come up with plans to greater increase resilience, although that work is already ongoing within the department and indeed across government …

“This is a situation that we do have to live with, but not be at the mercy of.”