NHSBT Blood Donation (previously the National Blood Service or NBS) is responsible for the collection and distribution of blood products within England. Other parts of the United Kingdom are served by the

Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) is an independent, special agency of the Department of Health in Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of th ...

, the

Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) is the national blood, blood product and tissue provider. It makes up a Strategic Business Unit of NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). History The first dedicated transfusion service ...

, and the Welsh Blood Service. Blood Donation is part of

NHS Blood and Transplant NHS Blood and Transplant is an executive non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom's Department of Health and Social Care. It was established on 1 October 2005 to take over the responsibilities of two separate NHS agencies: UK Transplan ...

, which was established as a special health authority in October 2005 and also has responsibility for NHSBT Organ Donation and Transplantation.

Overview

Blood Donation collects at a combination of community-based temporary donation centres and 23 permanent blood donation venues across England, and it has been estimated that three units of blood are issued to hospitals within England every minute. It was reported by The Independent in 2016 that Blood Donation and NHS Blood and Transplant collect 1.8 million units of blood each year from 23,000 blood donation sessions across England and North Wales. On May 2, 2016 responsibility for blood collection in North Wales was passed from Blood Donation to the Welsh Blood Service, making it a national service operating across the whole of Wales. In 2016, it was announced by NHS Blood and Transplant that blood donors within England would receive a text message when their donation was sent to a hospital for use. In recent years, Blood Donation has launched campaigns aimed at increasing the numbers of

Black and Minority Ethnic A number of different systems of classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom exist. These schemata have been the subject of debate, including about the nature of ethnicity, how or whether it can be categorised, and the relationship betwe ...

donors. In 2016 a number of famous landmarks across the world took part in the Missing Type Campaign, in which the letters A, B, and O were removed from signage for BAFTA,

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although ''Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly re ...

, and

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll railway station Llanfairpwll railway station is a station on the North Wales Coast Line from Crewe to , serving the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Anglesey. History Opened in 1848 it was initially the terminus of the line from Holyhead before the opening of ...

to highlight the need for the corresponding blood types. In 2017, newspapers reported that Blood Donation had launched an urgent plea for more black blood donors, following a 75% increase in issues of blood with the sub-type Ro between 2014 and 2016.

References

{{Reflist National Health Service (England) Blood donation NHS special health authorities