O positive and O negative donors asked to urgently book appointments to give blood following London hospitals IT incident

England’s top doctor has today (Monday 10 June) backed calls from NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) for O Positive and O Negative blood donors to urgently book appointments to donate in one of the 25 town and city centre NHS Blood Donor Centres in England, to boost stocks of O type blood following the cyber incident in London.

Blood donor centre sign It comes as the NHS reveals this week – National Blood Week - that three blood donations are needed every minute in hospitals to deal with emergencies, childbirth and routine treatments as it calls on more people to become lifesaving donors.

There are around 13,000 appointments available nationally this week in NHS Blood Donor Centres with 3,400 available in London alone.

The NHS is advising all patients to continue coming forward as normal following the cyber-attack.

How the cyber-attack is impacting blood stocks

The IT incident affecting a pathology provider means the affected hospitals cannot currently match patients’ blood at the same frequency as usual.

For surgeries and procedures requiring blood to take place, hospitals need to use O type blood as this is safe to use for all patients and blood has a shelf life of 35 days, so stocks need to be continually replenished.

That means more units of these types of blood than usual will be required over the coming weeks to support the wider efforts of frontline staff to keep services running safely for local patients.

Why O type is so important

O negative is the type that can be given to anyone – known as the universal blood type. It is used in emergencies or when a patient’s blood type is unknown. Air ambulances and emergency response vehicles carry O negative supplies. Just 8 per cent of the population have type O Negative but it makes up for around 15 per cent of hospital orders.

O positive is the most common blood type – 35 per cent of donors have it – and it can be given to anybody with any positive blood type. This means three in every four people, or 76 per cent of the population, can benefit from an O positive donation.

Spokespeople statements

Dr Gail Miflin, Chief Medical Officer, NHS Blood and Transplant

“Patient safety is our absolute priority. When hospitals do not know a patient’s blood type or cannot match their blood, it is safe to use O type blood.

“To support London hospitals to carry out more surgeries and to provide the best care we can for all patients, we need more O Negative and O Positive donors than usual. Please book an urgent appointment to give blood at one of our 25 town and city donor centres which currently have good appointment availability.

“We have availability for donors who know they are type O but we also welcome new donors who don’t yet know their blood type. You might have one of these special types that can be used in emergencies.”

Professor Stephen Powis, Medical Director for NHS England

“NHS staff are continuing to go above and beyond to minimise the significant disruption to patients following the ransomware cyber-attack on Synnovis earlier this week.

“Urgent and emergency services are available as usual so patients should access services in the normal way by dialling 999 in an emergency and otherwise use NHS 111 through the NHS App, online or on the phone.

“But unfortunately, we know that a number of operations and appointments have been postponed or diverted to other neighbouring hospitals not impacted by the cyber-attack, as we prioritise pathology services for the most clinically urgent cases.

“To help London staff support and treat more patients, they need access to O Negative and O Positive blood, so if one of these is your blood type, please come forward to one of the 13,000 appointments currently available in NHS Blood Donor Centres.”

Paul O'Brien Director of Blood Supply at NHSBT

Paul has praised the ‘amazing donors’ who help save lives everyday through blood donation and urges more donors to come forward this National Blood Week.

“We are hugely grateful for the continued support of our amazing donors who help to save lives everyday by giving blood. We simply can't do this without your incredible support and for this we truly thank you."

This National Blood Week also marks the start of a big summer push by NHSBT for new donors to come forward and register.

Find out more about National Blood Week.