A couple of years ago I started giving blood. I’ve always thought it was a good thing to do but for whatever reason I hadn’t got round to it before then.
I find the whole process quite fascinating which is good because I have terrible veins so it can be quite a task for them to find one to get the blood out! Once it’s flowing there is no problem of course.
I would also love to give platelets because Adam had them so often when he was in NICU. Only 1 in 3 blood donors is suitable to donate platelets and even then they need to volunteer to do it. Unfortunately my bad veins mean I can’t.
Anyway they recently overhauled the system to supposedly make it easier to give blood – opening up for more days of the week and setting up an appointment system. Although supposedly you can still drop in.
There are adverts everywhere for blood donation – the radio, Facebook, web pages – it seems they really need it.
Because of the way my work goes, it’s hard for me to make an appointment. If I see a free few hours I can head off and try it out. I liked the old system where Wednesday was drop in day.
So this afternoon – having checked they were open – I had a window and decided to head off to give blood. When I arrived I got a look and was asked if I had an appointment. I said no – but I though it was ok to drop in. She shook her head and said not really and then went through to see if they could fit me in.
A few minutes later she came back and said no. She didn’t say I could wait. She just said they were too busy and asked me to come back another time.
So I went to give blood and I was turned away.
On the one hand it’s great that they have so many donors but on the other hand it would be good if they didn’t advertise so much if that was the case and maybe spent their money on something else – like more staff and longer hours maybe!
