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Blood drive slated for Dec. 28 in Orangeville

December 3, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Paula Brown, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canadian Blood Services is holding its final mobile blood drive clinic of the year in Orangeville on Dec. 28 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and there’s still many spaces left to fill.

The clinic is being held at the local Best Western  (7 Buena Vista Dr) and appointments can be booked online at www.blood.ca or by calling 1-888-2DONATE. 

Canadian Blood Services holds a clinic each month in Orangeville, and while the COVID-19 pandemic has created restrictions for the non-profit organization, the need for blood continues.

“The need for blood is something that is maintained, it’s there every day and it doesn’t matter that there’s a pandemic; babies are still being born every day; mothers are still having complications during childbirth; people still have cancer; there are still going to be car accidents,” said St. Pierre. “There are things that are going on every day that are constantly uses for blood.”

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, following a call to action for donations, St. Pierre says that the Canadian Blood Services saw a surge of people going to clinics to donate blood. With hospitals halting elective procedures and treatments that tend to have high use for blood, she notes they also experienced a dip in the demand.

“We were very lucky that we happened to go into the pandemic with a good strong inventory in the country,” said St. Pierre.

Canadian Blood Services resuming their donor clinics has since seen a reduced capacity for collecting blood, with physical distancing protocols and cleaning measures restricting the number of people they’re able to process, while demand for blood has been spiking.

“The demand for the hospital using the blood has gone back up to pre-pandemic levels, yet, we’re still constrained by our capacity to collect because of the need for physical distancing,” said St. Pierre.

Now, with the demand back at pre-pandemic levels and walk-in donations not permitted, St. Pierre is urging those who have signed up to show up for their appointments as they need “every single unit booked in”.

“Just to put it into context, someone going through leukemia treatment, for example, they could use up to eight units of blood every single week during the course of their treatment, that’s eight units of blood has to come from like eight separate people. A car crash, for example, that could go through 50 units of blood for one car crash,” she noted.

In Shelburne, Canadian Blood Services hosts mobile clinics once every three months at the Centre Dufferin Recreation Complex. The next clinic is Dec. 11 and it’s fully booked.

Orangeville’s next blood clinic will be hosted in January.

Blood drive slated for Dec. 28 in Orangeville

By: Paula Brown, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canadian Blood Services is holding its final mobile blood drive clinic of the year in Orangeville on Dec. 28 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and there’s still many spaces left to fill.

The clinic is being held at the local Best Western  (7 Buena Vista Dr) and appointments can be booked online at www.blood.ca or by calling 1-888-2DONATE. 

Canadian Blood Services holds a clinic each month in Orangeville, and while the COVID-19 pandemic has created restrictions for the non-profit organization, the need for blood continues.

“The need for blood is something that is maintained, it’s there every day and it doesn’t matter that there’s a pandemic; babies are still being born every day; mothers are still having complications during childbirth; people still have cancer; there are still going to be car accidents,” said St. Pierre. “There are things that are going on every day that are constantly uses for blood.”

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, following a call to action for donations, St. Pierre says that the Canadian Blood Services saw a surge of people going to clinics to donate blood. With hospitals halting elective procedures and treatments that tend to have high use for blood, she notes they also experienced a dip in the demand.

“We were very lucky that we happened to go into the pandemic with a good strong inventory in the country,” said St. Pierre.

Canadian Blood Services resuming their donor clinics has since seen a reduced capacity for collecting blood, with physical distancing protocols and cleaning measures restricting the number of people they’re able to process, while demand for blood has been spiking.

“The demand for the hospital using the blood has gone back up to pre-pandemic levels, yet, we’re still constrained by our capacity to collect because of the need for physical distancing,” said St. Pierre.

Now, with the demand back at pre-pandemic levels and walk-in donations not permitted, St. Pierre is urging those who have signed up to show up for their appointments as they need “every single unit booked in”.

“Just to put it into context, someone going through leukemia treatment, for example, they could use up to eight units of blood every single week during the course of their treatment, that’s eight units of blood has to come from like eight separate people. A car crash, for example, that could go through 50 units of blood for one car crash,” she noted.

In Shelburne, Canadian Blood Services hosts mobile clinics once every three months at the Centre Dufferin Recreation Complex. The next clinic is Dec. 11 and it’s fully booked.

Orangeville’s next blood clinic will be hosted in January.

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