Canada's blood inventory has hit a critically low level.
Canadian Blood Services is encouraging all eligible donors to make a blood donation as soon as possible to help increase the country's low inventory.
“Without the help of Canadians we may have difficulty meeting the expected hospital demand across the country. For patients this may mean deferring elective or routine treatments,” said Mark Donnison, Canadian Blood Services vice-president of donor relations.
“We are committed to doing everything that we can to bring new blood donors into the system and encouraging current donors to regularly donate to ensure we don't find ourselves in the same situation in the future.”
According to Susan Masumoto, Director Donor Relations for Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, recent months have seen extremely low attendance rates at blood donor clinics across Canada. This, along with the constant need for blood, has caused the national inventory to be used faster than it can be replenished.
“To put it into perspective, our goal is to have five to eight days on hand for any particular blood group and right now four of our eight blood groups have been at about three days on hand,” said Masumoto.
As of the end of September, the national blood inventory is the lowest it has been since 2008.
“While we are extremely concerned that the reduced availability of blood may result in delays in treatment for certain patients, we are confident in the work Canadian Blood Services is doing, in collaborating with healthcare authorities to ensure patient safety,” said Lorna Warwick, national director of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.
“We are calling on Canadians to donate blood today to ensure our system can help patients tomorrow.”
Canadian Blood Services will be holding a blood donor clinic at the Bonnyville Centennial Centre on Oct 14 and will be in St. Paul on Oct. 15.
Masumoto encouraged residents to book an appointment to better notify clinic staff and to make sure to cancel it if unable to make the appointment.
“We did find this past summer we had much high number of cancellations and a much higher than expected no-show rates. Nationally, from April to the end of September, there were 119,000 people who didn't show up for their appointments,” said Masumoto.
“We are speculating that one of the reasons is that people believe if they don't show up there is somebody ready and able to step in and take their spot, but that is not the case. If we have booked an appointment, that spot was saved for you.”
Those who are unable to make the local blood donor clinics can visit blood.ca to find one that fits their schedule. Masumoto also mentioned that the blood donor clinic in Edmonton is open Monday through Saturday.