Canadian Blood Services: After asking more people in Canada to donate blood this summer and despite many answering the call, the distribution of blood to hospitals continues to outpace the number of donations being made across Canada, including in New Brunswick.
“Canadian Blood Services sent New Brunswick hospitals nearly 23,000 units of blood this past year to treat patients so it’s incredibly important that people donate blood—or other blood components, like plasma and platelets—to prevent patient care from being impacted,” says Kim Elliott, associate director, donor relations, Canadian Blood Services. “When a patient needs blood, there is no substitute. Without it, lives are at stake.”
In addition to serious trauma and emergency care, blood and blood products are a critical part of everyday medical care including major surgeries, medical procedures, cancer treatments, and managing diseases and disorders.
“As quickly as we collect blood, hospitals are calling for more. There are simply not enough people donating in New Brunswick to ensure patients’ needs will continue to be met long-term,” says Elliott.
While Canadian Blood Services manages a national inventory and blood can be moved around the country, the national blood system depends on donors showing up across Canada, including people in Saint John and Moncton.
Blood donors are needed in both cities to help ensure hospitals in the province receive the blood they need — including Saint John Regional Hospital and Moncton Hospital. Together, these two hospitals alone need more than 11,000 units of blood per year.
To keep meeting the needs of patients in New Brunswick and elsewhere in Canada, more than 1,500 people are needed to donate blood between now and November 30 at the Saint John donor center, located at 405 University Ave., and the Moncton donor center, located at 500 Mapleton Road.
There are roughly 550,000 people in New Brunswick who are eligible to donate blood, yet only a mere fraction do—just two percent of the population.
“Life can change in seconds, and you or someone you love may need blood urgently. It’s up to all of us to ensure we can save lives here at home,” says Elliott.
Don’t count yourself out. Canadian Blood Services regularly updates our eligibility criteria for donating blood. You may be able to donate—even if you couldn’t before.
Go to blood.ca, download the Give Blood App, or call 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888-236-6283) and book an appointment today, tomorrow, and in the coming weeks.
If you cannot donate, you can still help save lives in other ways. Visit blood.ca to learn how you can make all the difference for patients and their families. You can also ask friends, family, and colleagues to donate blood and share the message on social media.
About Canadian Blood Services
Canadian Blood Services is a not-for-profit charitable organization. Regulated by Health Canada as a biologics manufacturer and primarily funded by the provincial and territorial ministries of health, Canadian Blood Services operates with a national scope, infrastructure, and governance that make it unique within Canadian healthcare. In the domain of blood, plasma, and stem cells, we provide services for patients on behalf of all provincial and territorial governments except Quebec. The national transplant registry for interprovincial organ sharing and related programs reaches into all provinces and territories, as a biological lifeline for Canadians.
