Canadian Blood Services continues to call for donors from Nanaimo and across Canada.
Marcelo Dominguez, B.C./Yukon communications specialist for Canadian Blood Services, says the non-profit organization would like to fill blood donation appointment slots locally over the next two weeks.
“We’re trying to collect just over 900 blood donations and we’ve had great support, as we typically do in that part of Vancouver Island, but we’re still trying to fill about 100 open appointments,” Dominguez said. “If that could happen in the next 14 days, preferably before Labour Day, that would be terrific.”
Canadian Blood Services is also looking to fill approximately 15,000 appointments nationally.
“We have a national inventory system, so thankfully that helps us prevent any kind of issue.
If we ever need to have additional blood units to a particular part of the country, we can leverage that national inventory,” Dominguez said.
“It’s a point of pride for Canada’s blood system; I think it’s actually terrific but having said that, we still have certain collection levels we want to maintain to make sure we can service our hospital partners and make sure we can deliver products as needed just in time.”
He said filling the 15,000 appointments by Labour Day long weekend would be put Canadian Blood Services in good position.
“Because of the nature of blood, it’s something we’re always in a constant demand for, simply just because red cells, for example, last 42 days, platelets five days, plasma can only be frozen up to a year. It’s like a carton of milk, you just have to keep getting new, fresh blood,” Dominguez said.
The clinics run today (Aug. 29) and also on Tuesday and Wednesday (Sept. 3-4) of next week and people interested in donating can go to www.blood.ca or call 1-888-236-6283 to find the closest clinic.