The Blood Bank’s reserves could soon run dry unless more people show up to donate, a spokesman said yesterday, noting a steady decline in the number of bags available in the past three weeks.

Speaking to this newspaper following repeated calls by the bank in Guardamangia for blood donations, nurse Tony Micallef said the decline was caused by fewer people showing up to donate and by an increase in demand.

Yesterday, the bank made an urgent call for O positive blood, of which 50 bags are needed daily. It appealed for donations to fill another 60 bags with this blood type.

“The number of people who come to donate has decreased but that’s not the only factor contributing to this problem. There has been a spike in the demand too,” Mr Micallef said.

He insisted that while there was always a need for blood, the reserve was not on “red alert” just yet and the bank was pulling out all the stops to make sure it did not reach that point.

We worry people get so many SMSes that when they receive ours, they dismiss them

“In the past few weeks we have been sending out text messages to encourage people to donate, not to cause alarm, but to make sure we do not get to a point where we cannot supply blood to someone who might urgently need it,” Mr Micallef said.

While the Blood Bank sends out text messages regularly and also makes extensive use of social media to get the message to as many people as possible, Mr Micallef said he feared people were becoming overwhelmed with promotional messages.

“We worry that people get so many SMSes with promotions that when they receive our messages, they immediately dismiss them.”

He insisted that while social media was effective in getting the word out, it was not enough that users shared the bank’s posts and then failed to turn up to donate. Most posts were ‘liked’ by thousands, but this was not reflected in the number of donors who actually turned up, he said.

Yet while individual donors had decreased, Mr Micallef said that the bank had recently noted an increase in the number of people going to the bank in groups.

“It seems as though companies and organisations are getting their employees together and encouraging them to donate blood as part of their corporate social responsibility. Yesterday, we had a group of 30 people, for instance.”

The nurse said that it was important that those who went to the bank as a group for the first time, returned to donate regularly, even if alone.

The Blood Bank in Guardamangia is open daily between 8am and 6pm.