The number of blood donors has been consistently declining over the past three years and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta's blood bank is on a mission to go out hunting for donors to make up for the lack of visits to its clinic.
In 2001, the blood bank received blood from 2,014 donors but this figure dipped slightly to 1,921 in 2002 and continued to drop to 1,380 donors last year.
Meanwhile, figures for last month saw 116 blood donations from 99 men and 17 women, 12 of whom donated blood for the first time.
SMOM blood bank director George Buttigieg said the centre was liasing with various agencies, hotels and organisations to organise a blood drive for employees at their place of work.
"One common reason behind a reduction in the number of blood donations is the unfounded fear that this is a painful process," he said.
Dr Buttigieg also believed that today's busy and stressful life was another determining factor in this decrease.
"Since many people do not seem to have the time to slot in donating blood, we are going to them ourselves and are receiving a lot of cooperation from companies," he said.
Hilton (Malta) is one such organisation that is backing the blood bank and it has allocated three days, which end today, when its employees can donate blood from the comfort of the hotel.
Hotel general manager Friedrich Schäfer said the company had the community's interest at heart and rather than donating money to an organisation it believed it could help save lives by encouraging its employees to donate blood.
This is the second time that Hilton (Malta) has organised a blood drive; the last time it managed to present over 100 donors.
"The Hilton has been an exemplary company and we are appealing to more hotels and companies to come forward," Dr Buttigieg said.
He insisted that the SMOM blood bank, located at St Philip's Hospital, Sta Venera, was not in competition with the National Blood Transfusion Centre and all the blood was passed on to the latter for public use.
Each time donors give blood they would be donating a bag of 450ml towards those in need. This was not a lot when considering that the average operation consumed about two bags and a bad traffic accident, where the victim is losing large quantities of blood, could need up to 40 bags for life to be saved.
"We're doing more complicated and different types of surgery so the need for blood is ever increasing," Dr Buttigieg said.
People should not be scared of donating blood. The process was simple; after being examined by a doctor, the person would be asked lifestyle questions, which would remain confidential, and then 450ml of blood would be extracted.
The blood, which would be submitted to the NBTC, would then be screened to ensure it was free of viruses or infections. There were occasions when blood was discarded.
The most common blood donations, about 40 per cent, came from the blood group 'O', while the rarest, at just one per cent, was the blood group 'AB Negative'.
"However, I have to insist that all blood groups are necessary and very precious. Everybody should make an effort to donate blood," Dr Buttigieg said.
Women can donate blood three times a year, while men can donate blood up to four times a year.
The SMOM blood bank can be contacted on 2144 9060.