
Tuesday, 13th January 2009 - 10:24CET
Blood shortage 'may cause cancellation of operations'
File picture: Blood bags in storage.
The National Blood Donations Centre has appealed for urgent blood donations, saying that a serious shortage of blood, particularly 'O' positive and negative, could force surgical operations to be cancelled tomorrow or on Thursday.
The centre also warned there might not be enough blood to meet emergencies.
"We need some 50-60 blood donations per day, but so far this week we have only had 15 to 25 per day," Angelo Degiorgio, manager of Blood Donation Services, told timesofmalta.com.
He said that as long as emergencies did not crop up, there was supply for the next two days.
Mr Degiorgio said there had been cases where operations had had to be postponed by a few hours, but in most cases the people responded generously to urgent blood donation appeals.
Blood donations are received at the centre opposite St Luke's Hospital in Guardamangia every day between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. including Sundays and holidays.
Donors need to produce their ID cards.






RSS
Comments
Are you now denying the truth?
Ask any doctor and he will illuminate you on whether gays are more prone to disease themselves and in spreading diseases.
Gays are not more prone to disease. that is a myth, which has been proven wrong. please do not spread harmful rumours.
As far as I know they do some checks, but they cannot do an unlimited number of tests due to practicalities and even to the cost of some kits to test for certain diseases. And there are a myriad of tests that cannot possibly be made with a small sample.
Indeed, if your doctor suspects that you have some particular disease or wants to check your blood for something, s/he will specify what s/he wants the blood to be checked for as there are so many different tests for different things.
They also depend on the honesty of the person who has to fill in a questionnaire, so if the person is not honest s/he may be passing a disease to others who receive his/her blood or blood products.
So its better to be safe than sorry.
No but they are more prone to disease.
John Azzopardi
Good point
Mark Fleri
You have been answered by Sarah Jane Gatt.
Due to the mad cow disease brought about by turning them into cannibals by feeding them bone meal and other byproducts not used by humans means that people who were in the UK and ate meat are at risk of developing the mad cow disease as do others who receive their blood.
So if the authorities accept blood from such persons they will be putting themselves at risk of being sued if someone develops the mad cow disease after having been given blood or blood products.
I feel that the authorities are right to postpone operations rather than give blood that may lead to complications later on in life.