Blood donation to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta has fallen to such an extent that the Order is considering shutting down its blood bank.

Blood Bank director George G. Buttigieg said yesterday that the Order allocated Lm50,000 a year to the blood bank. But if the number of donors continued to dwindle he might have to recommend that better use should be made of the money.

This was a decision he would not take lightly and he would do his utmost to continue operating the blood bank - but it had to be worth the investment.

Speaking during a blood drive at the Hilton Hotel for its employees being held throughout this week, Dr Buttigieg encouraged organisations to take similar initiatives. Some 20 to 25 Hilton employees were donating blood each day.

He said that SMOM had 93 donors fewer last year.

However, it could be that although there were fewer donors more people would be giving blood when it was collected by a mobile unit.

In fact, the National Blood Transfusion Centre, to which SMOM donated all the blood it collected, saw a drop of over 650 donations last year.

However, there was a 20 per cent increase in donations to the centre's blood mobile unit.

Over 11 per cent of the NBTC's 16,185 donations last year were by SMOM Blood Bank, which was situated at St Philip's Hospital, in Sta Venera. The SMOM had 11,000 members throughout the world, grouped into many associations. It had 80,000 volunteers and 12,000 employees on its payroll, including four full and two part-time workers in Malta.

The order ran 100 hospitals and 40 first aid camps throughout the world. It spent thousands of liri on various health projects involving leprosy, drug addiction and Aids programmes.

The Blood Bank in Malta was set up in 1968 and was originally run by the SMOM Metropolitan Cathedral Chapter of Malta. In 1973, it passed into the hands of the Grand Magistry of the SMOM with its headquarters in Rome. In November, 2000, its management was passed on to the Maltese Association of SMOM.

Dr Buttigieg encouraged all eligible Maltese citizens to donate blood.