Kevan has been contacted by NHS Blood & Transplant who are trying to encourage healthy people to continue to donate blood to support the NHS.
The update is available below:
I am coming through to you to request your support as a Member of Parliament.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) provides a blood and transplantation service to the NHS, looking after blood donation services in England and transplant services across the UK. We wrote to you following the election to introduce ourselves and our work in your constituency.
NHSBT are sharing the attached letter with you, it is an example of letter that many blood donors will be receiving soon, including those living in your constituency.
We need people who are fit and healthy to keep donating as normal. A lot of people have called us asking if sessions are still going ahead. We need them to know that our sessions and donor centres are still open and that travel to a blood donation sessions is essential for the NHS. Blood donation is a reason to get out of the house and do something amazing. Blood donation saves lives.
Donations have dropped though our stock levels are currently good because hospitals are cancelling routine operations. We need people to keep donating to make sure we can keep supplying the blood hospitals need in the coming weeks and months. Patients and doctors are relying on us to be there.
We’ve put extra safety measures in place and safety is always our number one priority. We’re doing extra cleaning and triaging everyone who arrives so only people with no risk factors can enter the donation area. We’re asking donors to follow the latest advice on our website and app and the advice from the Government. We’re regularly reviewing the situation and working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care, PHE, and the UK’s other blood donation services.
We have two distinct requests for you:
- We ask that you follow @GiveBloodNHS on Twitter and Facebook and share the calls to action which we are posting to remind your constituents of how they can help.
- Over the next 12 weeks we would like to send regular updates of where there are unfilled slots in your constituency. If you were to share these details on your social media channels, we’re confident they would be filled. We hope that you will support this.
We thank you for your support for blood donation and the NHS during this time. If you have any questions about what NHSBT are doing, please contact us.
A copy of the sample letter that will be issued shortly is available below:
