The Australian Red Cross Lifeblood has put out an urgent call for donations within the next fortnight, with levels extremely low as hospitals work to clear the backlog of elective surgeries.

Appointments are also low in the coming weeks, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood’s Belinda Smetioukh said.

“So while the blood stocks of particular groups are down, so are those people booked in to donate, so we really need to replenish our stocks and get as many people in to donate over the next 2 weeks as possible,” she told Bill McDonald.

There’s a number of reasons for the drop.

“A spike in elective surgery is one of them, so we are saying that pandemic driven backlog of elective surgeries all happening now and that is causing an increase in demand for blood, so blood supplies to hospitals are up 7 per cent on what they were which his a significant amount when you think we need 31,000 donations every week across the country.

“That’s coupled with the fact we are seeing fewer people donate.”

To donate, visit https://www.lifeblood.com.au/

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