Blood donation

[quixoticgeek]

That's interesting. What's the rationale behind that?

BSE/vCJD.

J

[Auntie Helen]

Same here in Germany - I can’t give blood or organs because of BSE.

I couldn’t in the UK either because of having had cancer, even though it was 26 years ago.

[Greenbank]

Had to cancel mine earlier this week as I'd been ill (not Covid) over the weekend. Need to rebook for #19.

Less talk, more booking.

Sunday 4th October is the next appointment at my preferred location.

Booked.

Cancellation letter but incomplete:-

"We regret to let you know that we have had to cancel your appointment to give blood at Donor Centre, 75 Cranmer Terrace (Tooting), Tooing, London, SW17 0RB on ."

Website still has my appointment on it, will check in a few days to see if that changes otherwise I'll give them a ring (still 12 days to go until that appointment).

[hellymedic]

Got a letter about the Dutch organ donor registry. Not sure there's much point, being British, my organs and blood are not acceptable for donation in this country.
I don't know if in the event of me snuffing it they can get organs on a plane to the UK where they are accepted...

J

That's interesting. What's the rationale behind that?

The USA and many other countries do not accept blood from those who ate beef in Britain in the 1980s due to BSE/prion risk.

[Lightning Phil]

Reason for cancellation arrived in a letter today.  There are new social distancing guidelines so they’ve had to reduce number of donors per session. So I didn’t make the cut...

[matthew]

Just back from giving blood locally to me. Bit of a backlog at the door / waiting to be screened so I think the staffs lunch break was fast disappearing.

[Lightning Phil]

Got a letter about the Dutch organ donor registry. Not sure there's much point, being British, my organs and blood are not acceptable for donation in this country.
I don't know if in the event of me snuffing it they can get organs on a plane to the UK where they are accepted...

J

That's interesting. What's the rationale behind that?

The USA and many other countries do not accept blood from those who ate beef in Britain in the 1980s due to BSE/prion risk.

USA is a joke since they didn’t even test their own beef for the stuff causing BSE back then. Don’t know if they test now, probably not.

I was out travelling round world during the entire BSE episode, so missed whatever was happening back here in UK.

[The Family Cyclist]

I have been a bit lapse but also due to a lot of staff being furloghed I've not been able to get to my usual lunch time donation venue

Being o neg and I'm missing something which means noe natal can have my blood. Basically My blood is the vampires equivalent of domaine Leroy Musigny Grand Cru.

They always tell me I can get a booking whenever. Booked yesterday. For December....... I havent given since Easter so we'll outside the 3 months

[Greenbank]

Cancellation letter but incomplete:-

"We regret to let you know that we have had to cancel your appointment to give blood at Donor Centre, 75 Cranmer Terrace (Tooting), Tooing, London, SW17 0RB on ."

Website still has my appointment on it, will check in a few days to see if that changes otherwise I'll give them a ring (still 12 days to go until that appointment).

Just got a couple of texts from them:-

"
We're very sorry for the confusing letter you received from us recently, we have identified and fixed the bug that caused it.
"

"
All sessions are going ahead as usual and we still need you to donate. Please visit blood.co.uk or give us a call on 0300 123 23 23. Thank you!
"

That means I'm still on for next weekend.

[Paul]

I got turned away from my last one (after almost an hour’s wait) because of a slightly too-recent bout of conjunctivitis, which was news to me!

[Greenbank]

That means I'm still on for next weekend.

#19 done.

Now relaxing watching the marathon on telly whilst waiting for the nurse to come round to do the next ONS Coronavirus test.

[slowfen]

After a couple of misses due to low Hb (seemed to be them, their machine said 126, but GP test said 136) now back donating. No 86 

[Jasmine]

I went on Wednesday. Faster through than usual, due to no waiting at any stage. First time in ages that I didn't have a trainee. Number 29 done.

[bairn again]

Received a letter the other day as a reminder with a pre printed form attached and everything.

Pre lockdown I gave blood at work which made it easy not to forget but the letter has been the prompt I needed. 

Ive booked in for Monday 9th November at the donor centre in central Edinburgh, just in case I do a long ride on either the Saturday or Sunday before.  It will officially be my 40th donation - though I think the real total might be a bit more, when I started giving blood in the 1980s it was in the West of Scotland and Im sure their records have never been aggregated.   

[yoav]

I’ve recently started giving blood in Edinburgh after a 25 years of donating in England and Wales. Prior to that, I donated in various parts Scotland but never in Edinburgh. Fortunately, I have kept all my donor records so I could tell them because they had no idea as they not only not share records with England or Wales but also it seems, not with other centres in Scotland.

[FifeingEejit]

SNBTS is a national service and seems to always have been, the problem is the migration to electronic records, the usual approach is not not do the migration and leave the paper records hanging around somewhere.

As for cross nation data migration, I'll just laugh.
Well OK I won't, different services from day 1 and different record keeping requirements and processes, not sure if the GP practice data providers manage it where the provide software to various places but I've had a CD of patient data exported from some German system land on my desk before because "your IT you must know what to do with this".

Dàta migration was easier when it was all on paper because you'd just need to shove the wadge of paper in the patients record folder.

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[hellymedic]

Back in the day, I just presented my little blue stickie album for a new stickie, whether I was in England or Scotland. I have a little Israeli blood donation certificate too...

[Salvatore]

I went to give blood today. Never again. They ask far too many questions.

(click to show/hide)

Whose blood is it?
Where did you get it?
Why is it in a bucket?

(credit to @deirdrenugent4 on twitter)

[Greenbank]

Ha.

Booked #20 for just after Christmas (12 weeks and a day after my previous donation).

Setting up nicely for #25 in early 2022.

[Salvatore]

Donated very nearly an armful of B+ yesterday. Only when I looked closely at the letter did I realise that it was the 4th time this year. I think 5 in a year is theoretically possible if you have one at the beginning of January and then every 12 weeks after that, if you can get the appointments.

Last night when I tried to book the next appointment, all the nearby venues (within about 10 miles) were fully booked, no matter how much I extended the date range. If I extended the range there were slots available at Slough and Petersfield. No thanks. But this morning by magic there are appointments available at Basingstoke (a little bit more than 10 miles) in March,  so I'm in.

Edit: no hot drink with my biscuit (Club) because covid. Hot drinks take longer to drink than cold, and seating is more spaced out with fewer chairs, so they don't want people to hang around sipping their tea. That's what I was told, anyway.

Also covid: Because everything is so controlled (e.g. not letting people in until their appointment time) everything seems to flow much smoother with less waiting and I think I've been in and out within an hour every time this year except in pre-covid January.

[Paul]

That's been my experience. Much less waiting, no hot drink, hard to book anywhere except for the main centers.

[Geriatricdolan]

How do you guys find cycling after giving blood?

I always avoided because the consensus seems to be that there is a 2-3 week period of poor performance afterwards, which is annoying if you do structured training and even worse if you have races planned.

[L CC]

I'm not allowed to give blood, but I certainly suffered had to take up the slack on the tandem if Mr Smith had done his part.

Lasted at max a week, I think.

[mmmmartin]

when I tried to book the next appointment, all the nearby venues (within about 10 miles) were fully booked, no matter how much I extended the date range. If I extended the range there were slots available at Slough and Petersfield. No thanks. But this morning by magic there are appointments available at Basingstoke (a little bit more than 10 miles) in March,  so I'm in. I'm the same group as you:     

I'm the same blood group and often find when I try to book, there are no slots. When I asked about this i was told at a donation session that if they have a lot of blood of one group, donors with that group find slots to donate become very much fewer. When you sign in the website knows your group. I bet if you were a rare group you'd have no problem finding a slot. Which when you think about it, does make sense.
Also I was told that blood is used much less nowadays - covid means fewer planned operations happen, but in the long term there is a structural decline in the amount of blood needed as operations tend to use much less now than in the past.

[Salvatore]

when I tried to book the next appointment, all the nearby venues (within about 10 miles) were fully booked, no matter how much I extended the date range. If I extended the range there were slots available at Slough and Petersfield. No thanks. But this morning by magic there are appointments available at Basingstoke (a little bit more than 10 miles) in March,  so I'm in.   

I'm the same blood group and often find when I try to book, there are no slots. When I asked about this i was told at a donation session that if they have a lot of blood of one group, donors with that group find slots to donate become very much fewer. When you sign in the website knows your group. I bet if you were a rare group you'd have no problem finding a slot. Which when you think about it, does make sense.

I'm sure this is true.  I suspect they have become very good at matching supply to expected demand. And that's why walk-in donations with a random group seem to be a thing of the past.

This explanation ends "We only collect what we need to avoid wasting any donations."

Also from blood.co.uk

There are three reasons why you might not get an appointment straight away:

- we only collect the amount of blood that's needed and don't want to waste your donation.
- we prioritise the most needed blood types and your blood group is not yet known
- as a safety precaution, we've reduced the number of donation chairs per session to give more space between donors - this means there are fewer appointments available

How do you guys find cycling after giving blood?

I always avoided because the consensus seems to be that there is a 2-3 week period of poor performance afterwards, which is annoying if you do structured training and even worse if you have races planned.

I rode a 1000 (Great Eastern)* in about 1990 3 days after giving blood. I don't remember having any ill effects, but who knows, I might have finished earlier and/or more easily if I hadn't. I don't think I'd wouldn't do it now.

*the only reason I remember this is that the organiser Noel Simpson asked what the plaster on my arm was for, and was it any good.