Hospitals are calling for O positive and O negative blood donors to come forward while they urgently try and fill 6,000 available appointments in London over the next two weeks.
Due to a recent cyber-attack some of the capital’s hospitals can no longer match patients’ blood at the same frequency as usual.
Meaning blood used for life saving treatments such as childbirth and emergencies is limited to type O.
NHS Blood and Transplant chief medical officer Dr Gail Miflin said: “Please book an urgent appointment to give blood at one of our 25 town and city donor centers which currently have good appointment availability.”
These centers are available in Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Gloucester, Lancaster, Leeds City Centre, Leicester, Liverpool, London Edgware, London Tooting, London West End, London Westfield Shepherd’s Bush, London Westfield Stratford City, Luton, Manchester, Plymouth Grove, Manchester, Norfolk House, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Poole, Sheffield, Southampton and stoke.
The need for type O blood is desperate as it’s the safest blood type, specifically type O negative, more commonly referred to as the universal blood type.
Emergency response vehicles carry this type, as it’s safe to use on anyone. Even though only 8% of the population carry this, it makes up for 15% of hospital orders.
O positive, however, is the most common blood type, with 35% of the population carrying it. And with 76% of the overall population being able to benefit from it.
The NHS is still urging patients to come forward as normal following the cyber-attack and has now deployed a cyber incident response team working with health services across London hoping to keep disruption within patient care to a minimum.
Professor Stephen Powis, Medical Director for NHS England, said: “Urgent and emergency services are available as usual so patients should access services in the normal way by dialing 999 in an emergency and otherwise use NHS 111 through the NHS App, online or on the phone.”
The NHS are trying to keep normality after the attack yet continue to ask carriers of type O for urgent donations.
To book an appointment, visit blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 23 23
Join the discussion