Irish Blood Transfusion Service calls for donations over Christmas period

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) is urging donors to make a special effort to give blood around the Christmas and New Year period, and into January 2025. This is especially important as due to the way the holidays fall this year as  45 normally scheduled clinics will not be held over that period.

“Donating blood is a selfless act for the person who gives it but is a priceless gift to the person who receives it. For the next 3 weeks, we will need to make over 10,000 appointments to safely support the health service over Christmas and into 2025,” said Paul McKinney, Director of Donor Services and Logistics.

“The IBTS has just imported additional stocks of O negative, B negative and A negative from the UK to supplement supply in those blood groups leading into Christmas as demand for these blood groups remains consistently high. We are also arranging extra clinics on the next three Sundays (22^nd, 29^th December, 5th January), and additional clinics on Friday 27^th Dec and 3^rd Jan.

“On any given day 200 patients receive transfusions in Irish hospitals, and the demand for blood, over Christmas and particularly during the month of January is constant. We rely on our donors and are urging them to give a priceless gift this Christmas, the gift of life,” said Mr McKinney.

If you receive a text from us to make an appointment please do so either by ringing us on 1800731137 or via our online booking portal. If you do make an appointment please try and keep it as we are having large amounts of no shows and cancellations at short notice.

We would ask anybody who does not currently donate blood to please consider making your New Years resolution for 2025 to become a blood donor. We are especially asking younger people and people of African Heritage to become blood donors and help save people’s lives .

We would also like to thank our regular donors for their incredible support in what has been a very challenging but successful year for everybody, and we hope they will continue that support into 2025.