Adam Bramburger
Beaver Staff
With an urgent need for O- negative blood across the country, Canadian Blood Services Kingston area territory manager Debbi Barfoot is encouraging donors to come forward quickly.
Barefoot explained that as the universally acceptable blood type, O negative is often in high demand from hospitals but it’s also one of the rarest types to secure.
“It’s not an easy blood type to get on a good day,” she said. “Less than seven per cent of Canadians actually have O-negative blood.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Barfoot said the national supply of O-negative blood sits at less than two days inventory. Other blood types range from three days for B negative to 10 days for AB positive.
Overall, collections have been down and Barfoot suspects weather may have been a factor.
“Collections have been down with the cold weather and we’ve had a lot of storms this winter, which is part of it. That definitely contributes to the inventory levels,” she said.
Canadian Blood Services estimates a heart surgery patient could need blood from up to five donors, a car rash survivor might need blood from up to 50 donors, a cancer treatment could require blood from up to five donors, and a patient suffering from leukemia may require blood from eight donors a week.
Barfoot is hoping that if people realize there is a concern, they’ll make it out to a clinic to donate regardless of what type of blood they have.
“If they can, get in to donate at their local clinic as soon as possible,” she said. “Just because we have the urge for O negative doesn’t mean other blood types will be turned away. There’s just a real need for O negative right now from the hospitals.”
The easiest way to book an appointment to donate is to visit the website www.blood.ca. It has a tool where a potential donor can search all the clinics within a designated radius and book a time to give.
There isn’t a clinic scheduled at Napanee’s Strathcona Paper Centre until March 9 but there are several other options in the near future. In Kingston, there’s a permanent clinic at 850 Gardiners Road just south of the Cataraqui Centre mall that’s open from 3-7 p.m. Tuesdays, 1-7 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3-7 p.m. Thursdays. It also opens one Saturday a month.