British hospitals on alert. Britain is facing an unprecedented blood shortage, the public health system said on Wednesday, asking hospitals to postpone non-emergency operations, risking further aggravating already significant delays suffered by patients. .
The NHS’s Agency for Blood and Transplantation (NHSBT), the public health system, has issued a blood stock amber alert, which takes effect on Wednesday, according to a statement. This is the first time such an orange alert has been triggered, the NHSBT told AFP.
This means “hospitals are being asked to implement measures to protect blood stocks, which may mean postponing non-emergency operations to ensure blood is prioritized for patients who need it most,” says the NHSBT.
The operations that could be postponed are, for example, those related to “hip replacements, which represent approximately 1% of all surgical procedures,” explains the NHSBT in a press release.
They could be replaced by other operations, “such as hernia repair, gallbladder removal and eye surgery, which do not require reserve blood,” continues the organization.
Although blood stocks generally exceed 6 days, “the levels should drop in two days,” adds the institution, which asks donors to mobilize to rescue them.
A health system in crisis
This new incident hits public hospitals already facing many problems, including soaring energy bills, labor shortages, congested emergency services, ambulance delays and long waiting lists for surgery due to the recovery of operations canceled during the pandemic. Covid-19 pandemic.
A strike by nurses, who are demanding wage increases to deal with inflation, also threatens to further disrupt their operations. In the main union of the sector a strike call is being voted.
“Asking hospitals to limit the use of blood is not a decision taken lightly,” said Wendy Clark, acting director of the NHSBT.
“Patients are our priority. I sincerely apologize to patients who may postpone their operations due to this,” he added.
Maintaining blood reserves has been a “challenge” since the Covid-19 pandemic, the institution further explains, due to “staff shortages” but also “because donors are less likely to go to blood collection centers.” localities”.
On social networks, many Internet users expressed difficulties on Wednesday in making appointments to donate blood, or appointments made and canceled at the last minute, due to lack of staff to attend them.
Source: BFM TV
