49th donation done and dusted. I had to tick a yes box which invoked the dark blue nurse who is senior on the session. She is the only one who can sign off on the yes ticks. Mine was for my change in BP medication. The previous meds were causing the swelling and pain in my foot that I had late last year. They swapped me out to different medication which only needs a lower dose. Sorted the swelling and pain issue and I had a positive confirmation blood test that the new tabs were not impacting my liver and kidneys. Blue nurse happy as it was more than 8 weeks since the change. Busy at the Life Church in Burnley but still in and out within about an hour. Searching now where I can give my 50th.
Indeed Stanley, no sessions in Barlick since before the pandemic. I have appealed to the service to re-instate after sounding out both venues in town that were previously used. Both are still available. I can't offer anyone a lift either as you have to book your own appointments now so highly unlikely that you would get two adjacent bookings at the same venue. I very rarely see any other donors that I know who are from Barlick.
The donor sessions in Barlick were passed back to the Yorkshire team about a year before the pandemic as the Manchester team said that Barlick was the furthest venue away from their base which made those sessions late night finishing. Of course when the sessions shut down they still have to pack everything up and return the donations to the processing facilities.
The crux of the matter is a shortage of staff to run the sessions. My previous session at the Life Church last year they trialled using 12 chairs instead of the normal 8 or 9. They only had 1 extra junior member of staff though for the trial. Yesterdays was back to 9 chairs, it's a big venue so they snook an extra one in over the normal 8 used in other sites. I chatted to a couple of the nurses who I was allocated and they said it was a trade off between the number of staff available for each session and the minimum required for donor safety throughout the day.
A lot of logistics involved, mornings are kit packing up, checking and travelling. They unload and deploy over lunchtime then they have a team meeting and crack on with an afternoon session. When all the afternoon appointments and walk ins have been cleared they shut down for about a half hour break then open up for the early evening session, same drill when the last one is out, pack it all up and travel back to base, they generally knock off about 9 - 10 pm. They work about a 12 hour day.
Although the sessions are a lot more efficient than when I first started. There are less fainters due to the hydration regime before you donate and the use of the reclining chairs instead of the flat beds. The statistics for donors remains the same as it was, 4% of eligible donors support the entire country. They need more staff or that will never change.
Yes, the blood supply chain runs on about a week in hand of stock at all times. This includes all the variants that can be processed from a single unit. There is a constant need for the regular donors to attend as they provide the backbone of the stock. This is interspersed with occasional appeals for specific blood groups and there is a constant appeal for more donors who have Afro Caribbean and Asian ethnicity.
My blood group is A rhesus positive and is one of the most common groups in the population so there is always a high demand for that group. Folk who are in the O group are like gold dust to the service as their blood or extracted by products can be used for other groups as well as their own.
I suppose its like the product manufacturing which operates on "just in time" parts delivery to the assembly line. A bit more important than any of that though.
My last donation was processed and passed to Tameside General Hospital.
Very important for as many people as possible to continue to donate. A very good friend of ours is undergoing treatment for cancer. She recently needed a two unit blood transfusion to bring her blood count numbers back up. She's O positive so can have red blood cells from any of the other positive groups as well as her own. She is thankful of all donors that make the effort. O negative is the rarest group.
I had to tick a yes box which invoked the dark blue nurse who is senior on the session. She is the only one who can sign off on the yes ticks. Mine was for my change in BP medication. The previous meds were causing the swelling and pain in my foot that I had late last year. They swapped me out to different medication which only needs a lower dose. Sorted the swelling and pain issue and I had a positive confirmation blood test that the new tabs were not impacting my liver and kidneys. Blue nurse happy as it was more than 8 weeks since the change. Busy at the Life Church in Burnley but still in and out within about an hour. Searching now where I can give my 50th. 
