Blood Donors

[PanBiker]

My turn again tomorrow, (Tuesday 29th), I'm pre booked at Rolls for 13.35, just nice timing for a bit of work in the kitchen and lunch before giving my armful.

As always, anyone reading this with a yen to save lives can join the session without an appointment. It will take less than an hour to do something amazing.

You can check out all sessions near to you by postcode on the NHSBT website.

NHS Blood and Transplant

[Stanley]

I was talking to Rachel in the back street this morning. She had given blood and she said that the nurse had told her that the reason why the number of beds had been cut from 20 was that despite the need for blood, the number of staff had been slashed. They should get their priorities sorted!

[PanBiker]

The rotating reclining seats that are used now take up more room Stanley so the reduction from the 20 beds they used to have is down to the size of the room. Not denying what your friend has told you but the staff level looked the same to me. The reclining seats have improved the efficiency of the donation, improving fainting episodes, regime changes such as a pint of water for hydration before you donate has also had a massive knock on effect. I was through the system and on my way home in 40 minutes including the 10 minute brew and biscuits after donation. Staff were discussing how Barlick was the furthest outpost their team covers.

[Stanley]

I can't comment. I never give blood because I am seen as unclean, I have brucellosis in my system but thankfully it hasn't recurred for many years....

[PanBiker]

Aye that will exclude you Stanley. Thankfully I can still tick all the no boxes on the medical screening so am still good to go.

Excluding all the folk that can't donate for medical reasons the statistics for donors are still very dismal. 4% of eligible donors nationally, England contributes 3% of that figure.

Barlick is higher than the average which goes along with the trend in the town for volunteering I suppose and is to be commended. I once asked what would happen if twice as many folk turned up and was told they would just put on another session on a different day. Barlick is heading that way as we have had a few sessions with just a couple of weeks between them. I think this is also an effort to cater for the disparity between the male and female donation recovery times. It's 16 weeks for the females and 12 for the males. Not easy to cater for that really but staggered sessions will catch a few I think. There are roughly 3,500 people in Barlick who are eligible to donate.

It would be good if they could publish the donation information for each of the venues for feedback.

[PanBiker]

It comes round and it's my turn again for donating today down at Rolls. I have had to tick a couple of the yes boxes on the medical screening but I don't think they will exclude my donation. I am waiting to see a medical professional and although just out of the time period I had better mention the steroid injection the doc whacked me with.

I have an early appointment in the afternoon session which is a good do as I'm going up to Harrogate afterwards (the long way round), will have to go via Otley and Poole in Wharfedale. A59 still closed and you can't get in from Grassington and Pateley Bridge either. I'm usually through the bloods fairly quickly so not much of a knock on to our journey.

[PanBiker]

No problems at blood donors, steroid jab no problem so no knock on for my donation. I usually donate from my right arm, (had problems in the past with my left). Thought it prudent to offer the left though with my pending physio tomorrow on the other arm, nurse agreed so off we went. It was all good and ran like a gud un, so was through in less than 40 minutes including the brew, biscuits and inspection. Will go with left again I reckon, cannula nurse remarked last time I donated that my right looked a bit like a pincushion, she could certainly tell where she had been before.

[PanBiker]

It's the Barlick session again on Tuesday 24th May. I rejigged my appointment to the evening session on this one as I didn't know when I booked it if I would have an exam invigilation commitment on my normal afternoon slot. I will switch back to afternoons for the next two sessions.

Tuesday 24th May 2016

Rolls Royce Leisure (Merlin Suite)

13.15 - 15.15 and 16.35 - 18.35

NHS Blood and Transplant

Here is the advert and usual plea, you know it makes sense, do something amazing.

[PanBiker]

Went to blood donors to find a very much depleted collection team. I counted only 8 staff and so there were only 6 chairs in use. All of the staff were different as well, still from Manchester but not the normal team. Rolls used to host 10 chairs and there were about 12 staff at previous sessions. I hope they are not having to scale back to the point that we will have to source blood products from elsewhere. Our system is one of the safest in the world. The hours have changed as well, the last session finishes at 18.35. Not much chance for folk who are working to get to a session to donate unless they are allowed during the day.

[Stanley]

Cuts Ian..... Safe in their hands?

[PanBiker]

That's the worry Stanley. After my donation when I booked my next appointment I was given January next year as the earliest available slot. The normal August session is already fully subscribed. My usual regime is every 4 months although as a male donor I can donate every 12 weeks if there are sessions available to take it, 16 weeks for a female so they keep that interval for the regular sessions. It does not bode well I have heard of lots of cancelled appointment from other regular donors. Not surprising with what amounts to half a service for collection.

I have to say that the staff that were in attendance were as efficient and as professional as you would expect. The experience was no different apart from my appointment time running late. There were delays at each stage introduced by the reduced number of donation chairs.

I have expressed my concern over the reduction of service for Barlick and my fears for the future supply and safety of the stock on the NHSBT website. I have asked for feedback on my comments. I will report back in her when I get a reply.

[Stanley]

Good.... I haven't given blood for years because technically I am contaminated by Brucellosis. I'm happy to say I haven't noticed any recurrence for yonks.....

[PanBiker]

NHSBT have replied to the email I sent regarding the change of service level for the sessions in Barlick.

Our ref: SC/306997

Dear Mr Lambert

Thank you for taking the time to make us aware of your concerns. We appreciate all the feedback that we receive as it enables us to review our services and make improvements where possible.

We do everything we can to ensure that our donors are attended in a timely manner. We also want to make sure that we maintain a safe environment for our donors. We have unfortunately suffered with staffing issues, which has resulted in us having to reduce the number of chairs that we can run. We need to ensure that we have enough staff to run the maximum number of chairs and so when we have been short staffed we have had to run a reduced number of chairs. I am however pleased to hear that the staff were able to run the session efficiently and the staff were as professional as they have always been.

With regards to the change in opening hours, we have to ensure that we are adhering to the hours that our staff work. The time it took for our team to get to Barnoldswick from Manchester meant that they were working over those hours. We therefore had to make the decision to amend the opening hours to accommodate travel time. However, due to the significant reduction in the available appointment time we have now changed teams and our staff that run our Lancaster sessions will now be operating this session. This should allow for more donor facing time.

If you wish to discuss your concerns further, please feel free to contact my colleague, Claire Morris, on 07823 351 658 and she will be happy to hear from you or speak with you at a time more suitable.

I would like to thank you for the 30 donations you have made to date. It is with this kind of support that we are able to help save and improve the lives of many patients.

I hope that you will not be discouraged and will attend one of our future sessions.

Yours sincerely

Vivian Sproule
Customer Services Operations Manager

E-mail: customer.services@nhsbt.nhs.uk


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NHS Blood and Transplant
Do something amazing today - Give Blood.
Organ donation. The gift of life.
You can visit us at http://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk


Looks like the team is now from Lancaster rather than the Manchester one we have always had before. I assume traveling time is reduced, it's a 1 hour drive to Lancaster, not sure where the Manchester team were based? The reduced staffing and hence fewer chairs will be the reason that the August session is oversubscribed and I cant get an appointment until January. It's not good news, if this is general across the service they have lost 33% of their already beleaguered donations.

I can give every 12 weeks if the sessions were there but the normal rota is 16. I will continue to donate of course but am now not even on 16 but a 32 week regime.

[PanBiker]

Further to my last post regarding the reduction of service. Among the pile of letters we had when we got home yesterday was one from NHS Blood and Transplant, I thought it was a little early for my health questionnaire and confirmation of my next session for January in Barlick which I booked back in May. Not so, it would seem that in a "rare technical failure" they have managed to loose all the pre booked appointments for the next session at Rolls! The letter goes on to say that if I had booked an appointment I should ring them so they can re-instate my slot.

I went online to check availability, it's a good job I did as yesterday there were only 7 appointment slots left for the afternoon with all the evening slots already taken. I managed to secure a chair at 15.10. This trend is very worrying, not withstanding the technical glitch, the service is under massive strain from under funding, as already noted with the reduction of places in each session making each one oversubscribed. The entire service is now propped up by less that 4% of eligible donors due to less bums on seats at each venue, regardless of the fact that more people want to donate, it's a stupid situation. At any one time the country as whole only has 6 to 10 days of blood stocks, that's with the previous 4% of donors, goodness knows what the reserves would be now if push came to shove. This government has plenty of things to answer for but it should never be not enough blood. It's not just blood for the patients its the lifeblood of the service, I'm angry.

[PanBiker]

Blood donors today, I have an appointment as noted above. I have just checked the venue for future dates and see that all future sessions including today all show "limited walk in slots". This situation is directly down to under funding of the service and the reduction of staffing levels and the number of donation chairs at the venues. How can people be encouraged to donate when the system no longer has the capacity to accept them? It's very worrying for what used to be a world beating service.

[PanBiker]

I was asked today at blood donors if I would join a trial for an alternative non invasive haemoglobin testing method being trialed by the University of Cambridge. Seemed like a good idea so I signed up.
The test involves a hard plastic cuff that goes on your thumb below the knuckle. This is attached to a desktop unit similar to a BP monitor. When activated the thumb cuff pulsates every few seconds for about a minute during which it does its measurements using infra red light. As this is a trial the results are gathered anonymously and will be fed back into a database for further study. The results are not displayed on the test unit although if ultimately adopted they would be, you can see that the unit has various readout options on the LCD screen. For donation purposes the normal blood sample test is still done. Ifadopted this method of testing will save a huge amount of consumables used in the normal testing method, fingersticks, phials, solution, plasters, clinical waste etc. There would be a knock on with a reduction in equipment that would need to be carried and managed which could lead to less or smaller vehicles being used for the NHSBT teams. Seems like a win win to me.

I passed my normal haemoglobin test without any problems but as I had ticked the box to say that I had recently visited the doctor I had to be interrogated by the duty nurse to see why. My X-Ray was just a week ago but the nurse was more interested in why I had had it than anything else. He wrote it up as preliminary investigation which is how I would describe it as well which did not preclude me from donating at this session. It's now on my notes so I am sure I will be asked again at the next session in June. Managed to get an appointment for the afternoon session so, as long as they don't lose them all again I should be back on the regular 16 week rota, providing my doctor doesn't interfere with me too much.

[PanBiker]

Just been to give my armful and there are one or two changes that I noticed. All donors are now screened for HEV (Hepatitis E Virus) which can be present in animals as well as humans, more serious for folk with compromised immune systems. Normal healthy people may not ever realise they have it and the virus is normally self limiting over 1 to 4 weeks.

My grilling last time over my X-Ray or it's follow up was not commented on further by the screening nurse. The normal haemoglobin test has a slight change in that you don't get a plaster on your finger but a small piece of lint to hold on the stab test area to stem any blood flow. You are asked to deposit this in the yellow waste sack when you get to the donation chair. No repeat of the trial non invasive test that I signed up for either, I did fill in an extensive online questionnaire shortly after my last session.

Last change was that the advice is now to keep the base plaster applied to the donation arm on for 12 hours rather than the previous 6. Reason being that apparently the adhesive is at it's strongest at the 6 hour mark and some fragile individuals have found that taking it off at 6 hours can create bruising. The compression roll taped as a top layer can still be removed after 30 min to an hour after donation.

I noticed one brand new donor today, going through the same time as me, a young Asian girl, she got a first donation sticker from the nurse at the tea and biscuit table.

October next for me.

[Stanley]

All news to me of course because they wouldn't let me donate as I am officially 'unclean'. I wonder if the regulation about Brucellosis still applies....

[PanBiker]

Yes it does but it raises an interesting question. The printed donor health questionnaire does not ask directly about this particular infection or the hundreds of others that would preclude a person from donating, so how would they know?

It asks about CJD and certain diseases that you may pick up from visiting particular areas of the globe. There are questions for men on having sex with other men and the nurse casually asks directly now if you have had sex with another man. They want to know if you have had anyone else's needles stuck in you or if you believe you may be carrying an infection. Maybe the latter is the catch all if you answer truthfully. The NHSBT site does say that you should check the list of diseases if you answer yes to any of the questions on the printed questionnaire.

I suppose that's it, I do know that if you tick a yes box it does trigger a Spanish Inquisition as to why.

Here is the "B" section of the health eligibility and travel section of the website.

NHSBT Health Eligibility and Travel

The team had a trainee (Ken) on site yesterday who was on cannula removal practice. He didn't do mine, I got the Dark Blue Senior Nurse who happened to be passing when the weighing mechanism said I was done. Very smooth operation from the team yesterday, my plaster comes off in the shower and I noticed that I hardly have a mark on me.

Everyone that can should give blood.

[Tripps]

I read that just the fact of having lived in UK between 1980 and 1996 will bar you from being a blood donor in USA and Australia, due to the risk of nvCJD. Not sure what to make of that. Difficult problem to manage.

[PanBiker]

If Maz or Cathy reads this maybe they can check, it's interesting but won't bother me as I'm not thinking of offering an armful in either country.

Does seem a strange policy though and If its true I wonder if it has a knock on effect for treating poms who may need emergency medical treatment while on holiday or whatever. I was thinking of cross contamination possibilities.

[Stanley]

It was many years ago Ian and I think they simply asked me if I had had any infections so I told them about the Brucellosis. That did it! They told me that it never leaves you and I know that it was very common amongst vets.

[PanBiker]

Aye, my mate contracted it from raw milk from a farm in Wales while camping one summer. Sporadic flu like symptoms if I'm not mistaken.

From the blood safety point of view all donations are rigorously tested at the clearing station that's why they take 2 or 3 phials at the start of the donation process. These are barcoded along with your main donation pack and all are kept together along with you medical questionnaire. Back at base the phials go off for testing while the main donation is split into its component parts. They do this so that it can be used to treat more patients. On average a single donation can help three people if required. The main donation is held until all test results are back and then when cleared put into the bank for on demand usage.

The service is always appealing for more black, Asian and other ethnic group donors and of course those with group O, positive or negative. They are good for everyone but become a problem themselves if they need blood products.

I can't understand why more eligible people don't donate. 4% supporting everyone else in the country is a very fine line operation which ever way you look at it. 10 days reserve buffer at any one time for the entire supply is a pretty narrow margin.

In general I have noticed that as I get older I bruise a lot easier mainly noticeable from knocks on the arms. I'm impressed with this last session though, absolutely no bruising at all around the donation point.

[Tripps]

I was thinking more along the lines of 'if my blood is not good enough for the USA and Australia - is it good enough for me?'

I have looked up blood tests, and a reliable test for vCJD seems to be in its early stages, and I doubt if it is used routinely after blood donor sessions. This link would support that thought Donor blood testing

This site sounds authoritative. Note it is very recent - dated Dec 2016. vCJD blood test


As I said, a very difficult dilemma for the NHS. The risk is very low, and the blood is needed.

[PanBiker]

Indeed Tripps, Spock nailed it with, “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” (the Wrath of Khan 1982). Fiction I know but it's how it is. You make it as safe as you can with the supply and demand regime and the restrictions of the system.

Not many people would refuse a transfusion if push comes to shove. On the other side of the coin when donating not many people would refuse to offer an arm if it was their loved one relying on the donation. Unfortunately this does not pan out quite the same when asked to donate for strangers.