Renewed call for blood donors as cyber attack effects continue to be felt

A perfect storm of increased demand for O type blood from hospitals following the recent cyber attack has caused stocks of blood to drop to unprecedentedly low levels – and calls for more donors to come forward.

The cyber assault has impacted London hospitals and reduced collections due to high levels of unfilled appointments at donor centres in town and city centres, particularly in South London.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital Trusts are the ones affected – and they serve large swathes of central and South London.

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.

Today, national stocks of O Negative are 1.6 days and overall national stocks of blood across all types is 4.3 days. On average, there are around 50,000 appointments to fill each week.

There are over 12,000 appointments still to fill in donor centres across England over the next two weeks including 5,000 across London donor centres.

An Amber Alert triggers hospitals implementing emergency measures to minimise usage of the blood type that is running low.

You can register and book an appointment to donate via the GiveBloodNHS app or at www.blood.co.uk

Picture: Pixabay/Ahmad Ardity