Erfurt (dpa/th) – Blood supplies are becoming scarce in Thuringia. The reason is the low number of blood donations in November and December. In the past ten years, the willingness to donate in the run-up to Christmas has never been as bad as it was at the end of 2022, the DRK blood donation service in Thuringia said on request.
In November, the number of blood donors was ten percent below the usual level for that month, and in December it was even twelve percent below it. In the run-up to Christmas, the willingness to donate blood is usually particularly high. In the past few weeks, many Thuringians have not been able to donate blood because they were suffering from infections.
Throughout Germany, the DRK supplies around 75 percent of all clinics with blood products. Because of the low level of willingness to donate before Christmas, the DRK was unable to build up a stock and could only supply the clinics to a limited extent. In the clinics, on the other hand, the number of operations increases again after the holidays, so that the need for blood products increases.
The University Hospital in Jena announced on Friday that the depot there normally stores up to 500 blood supplies to care for patients after operations, after serious accidents, but also for people with cancer. Only 120 blood units are currently in stock – around 100 are needed per day. There was a lack of blood of all blood groups, but especially of groups 0 and A. “Blood donations are more important than ever,” says Silke Rummler, Managing Director of the Institute for Clinical Transfusion Medicine Jena at the Jena University Hospital.
The DRK blood donation service announced that the number of donors had returned to normal this week. In order to be able to cover the high demand, the DRK and the Jena University Hospital are calling for further blood donations.
