The French Blood Establishment (EFS), the only civilian blood transfusion operator in France, returned to a “under control” situation in 2023, after a very complicated year in 2022, during which blood supplies reached a historically low threshold. However, the organization, which ensures national self-sufficiency in blood products, hopes to renew its stocks in June before the summer period and is launching a new campaign to appeal for donations.
Cathy Bliem, Chief Executive of EFS, provides an update on World Blood Donor Day, which takes place on Wednesday 14 June.
The year 2022 has been marked by the need to launch two “vital emergency appeals”. This had never happened to us in twenty-two years of existence. We were forced to do this because the reserves of blood products and red blood cell concentrate [which can be stored for up to forty-two days] were extremely low at the start of the year, due to the wave of the Omicron variant of Covid. -19. We had significant absenteeism within our teams and with some donors.
No blood bag has ever been missed by patients, but the year 2022 has shown us to what extent donation is extremely dependent on the economic and health context. You can see that people come when the country is in good health. As soon as it experiences difficulties – Covid-19, therefore, but also gasoline shortages or social movements that prevent people from moving – blood donation drops. We need a country in good shape for people to donate blood.
Since the beginning of 2023, the situation has improved. Firstly because the donors were present enough, but also because the consumption of blood products has fallen due to the reduction in the supply of care and hospital activity, which has not returned to its level. before the Covid-19 crisis. There are still quite a few services closed and scheduled surgeries postponed.
The situation is therefore under control for the time being. We have about 88,000 blood bags in reserve, but that won’t be enough to start the summer. We would like it to go back around 100,000, 110,000 pockets. This world day is an opportunity to remember that needs are daily.
We need 10,000 donations per day. It is a daily challenge. We can never rest on our laurels. With the various public holidays in May, we lost between 30,000 and 35,000 donations, which, on the eve of the major holidays, must be found. Levels are moderately low and need to be raised before summer, the time of year when donation centers in major cities tend to be a little less crowded.
During this period, we go as close as possible to the donors by organizing collections along the coasts, in the mountains, in the resort areas. Because patients don’t take vacations. Before that, all this week, nearly two hundred event collections are scheduled throughout France in emblematic places, such as the Pantheon, in Paris, or the Montpellier Opera.
Throughout the year, we invite donors to come regularly and we meet them by organizing collections in universities or companies. The increase in telework has forced us to reinvent ourselves: we have set up appointments at the donation center and organize collections in communal places at the end of the afternoon to be available when the donors are. .
In 2022, we registered 1,550,000 active donors for 2,400,000 donations. Among them, 30% are people under the age of 30. 30-45 year olds have a little less availability; they enter the job market, some start a family.
In addition, each year, 170,000 donors leave our files because they reach the age limit [set at 70 years old]. Attracting and welcoming young donors and first-time donors is a real challenge for us. That’s why we reach out to them through social media.
The other challenge is to retain them. Donating once is good, but giving multiple times [men can donate up to six times a year, women four times] is even better, since there is no time period in the year in which the needs decrease. Especially since we also need donors with a phenotype of interest or a rare phenotype [rare blood groups, necessary in particular for patients with sickle cell disease].