If you are a donor and your blood type is O or A negative, encourage your relatives who have never donated to sign up at the blood donation unit in Guardamangia.
“While the national reserve is adequate, there is a deficit of the less common blood types, namely O negative and A negative,” Tony Micallef, practice nurse at the National Blood Transfusion Service, told this newspaper.
Only five per cent of the population has O negative blood, while another five per cent has A negative.
This is why existing O or A negative donors should encourage their own relatives to start donating blood, as there is a high chance that family members have the same blood type.
Mr Micallef was contacted by the Times of Malta as companies around the world are dropping their As, Bs and Os from their logos.
The #missingtype campaign was launched last year by the UK’s NHS in a bid to encourage those who have never donated blood before to sign up as donors.
The NHS’s message is simple: “You won’t miss it when you give it, but patients could miss it if you do not.”
The campaign is still trending on social media worldwide, and it was also picked up by local companies this month.
The daily demand is 50 bags, and blood supply has so far always managed to cover requests.
There is, however, a current need for B positive, and an additional 10 bags each of both O negative and A negative blood.
Asked about demand in summer, he noted that this fluctuated depending on the number of serious incidents. Although planned operations and treatment are not seasonal and blood is needed all year through, issues such as the heat, food poisoning and travelling meant there were fewer donors in summer.
The National Blood Transfusion adjacent to St Luke’s Hospital in Pietà is open from Monday to Sunday between 8am and 6pm. The mobile blood donation unit will on Sunday be at Saqqajja Square in Rabat from 8.30am till 1pm.
On Tuesday, people can also donate blood at the outpatients department at the Gozo General Hospital between 1pm and 5pm.
More information is available on https://health.gov.mt/en/nbts.