Saturday 3 September 2022 11:46 PM Routine surgeries could be postponed due to blood shortages trends now
Routine surgeries could be delayed because of a shortage of blood, experts have warned. Supplies are at around half their normal levels and hospitals have been told they should be ready to implement emergency measures – possibly as early as this month – should the situation get worse.
That would include reducing the number of non-urgent elective surgeries, such as joint replacements, which require adequate stocks of blood on hand in case a patient bleeds heavily.
Already about 6.5 million patients are on waiting lists for such operations, with around 300,000 waiting at least a year.
‘The shortage means hospitals will have no choice but to delay procedures, because it won’t be safe to go ahead,’ says Professor Ian Roberts, one of the UK’s leading experts on blood loss who is based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
In July, Health Secretary Steve Barclay issued an urgent plea for blood donations, warning that stocks were at half their normal level but insisted there were still ‘plenty of supplies’.
Hospitals will be forced to postpone many routine procedures because they have insufficient blood stocks to allow them to go ahead safely
In July, new Health Secretary Steve Barclay, pictured, urged people to make a blood donation to restock supplies. Otherwise NHS bosses will be forced to implement an emergency blood shortage plan
However, NHS Blood And Transplant sent a letter to UK haematology departments that same month which appears to present a more desperate picture. The correspondence, seen by the The Mail on Sunday, spoke of ‘concern about sufficiency of supply over coming weeks’ and urged staff to ‘remain ready to implement’ an emergency blood shortage plan.
Another letter sent on August 30 stated that blood levels continue to be ‘lower than we would want’, but did not indicate any timeline for crisis measures.
Further emails between NHS England and NHS Blood And Transplant state that it is ‘anticipated’ that blood may be held back from elective surgeries by the end of this month.
The NHS has an official traffic-light system for handling low levels of blood. Currently the UK is at ‘pre-amber’, which means there is only just enough blood to meet demand. NHS staff are advised to be cautious of wasting stock and to try to hold back blood types that most likely run low. The next stage is amber, when hospitals must ‘reduce and prioritise’ blood use.
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