The national blood bank spent over €1 million on blood bags and related equipment over the past three years, according to the head of the National Blood Transfusion Service, Alex Aqui-lina.

The operational management of the service and blood banks in other countries were discussed yesterday during the 27th meeting of the European Blood Alliance.

The alliance, made up of representatives from 23 European countries, aims at providing a network between countries to secure a safe blood supply for European citizens.

The Parliamentary Assistant for Health, Peter Micallef, said the networking support of the alliance was very important to Malta given its size.

Dr Micallef said he was proud of the fact that, given a population of about 400,000, over 19,000 people had donated blood last year.

Having said that, he pointed out that the number of donors decreased when compared to previous years.

Official figures released earlier this year showed that just over 19,500 people donated blood in 2009, a drop of about 900 over 2008. About 2,800 people donated blood for the first time last year, a slight drop when compared to the estimated 2,940 first-time donors in 2008.

Despite the drop in donations, Dr Micallef said, the Maltese blood bank was never in a serious crisis thanks regular donors, the good use of blood and the efficiency of the people who worked in the service.