NHS issues urgent warning across North West and says 'this is critical'
The NHS has appealed for thousands of "missing" blood donors to come forward amid fears of shortages of the crucial O Negative type.
Figures from NHS Blood and Transplant show that some 5,463 donors in the North West region with the O Negative type made their last donation over 12 months ago. O Negative blood is particularly sought after for donations as it can be safely given to anybody.
However, a number of factors mean that stocks are dwindling, and the NHS is appealing for anyone with O Negative blood to come forward.
READ MORE: Urgent 48-hour 'stay at home' warning issued over 'incredibly infectious' virus
READ MORE: Why the man arrested in the Liverpool parade crash can't be named
Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE
Four bank holidays, Easter holidays, and half term have all been factors in a drop off over a six week period, with each of these seeing a drop in donations.
Currently, England is on an amber alert for stocks of O type blood, meaning it is critical that donors come forward to help replenish the supply.
An amber alert means that hospitals are enabled to implement emergency measures to limit blood usage and vet the use of all type O blood to preserve it for emergencies.
Gerry Gogarty, Director of Blood Supply for NHS Blood and Transplant, said: 'Our 'missing' O negative donors in the North West have the power to relieve the pressure on supplies of this vital blood type.
'If you are O negative and haven't given blood in a while, please book an appointment to donate today. Don't hesitate - patients need you now."
He added: 'Our fixed donor centres generally have the best availability. If you can't find an appointment straight away please book further ahead or keep checking back to help fill last minute appointments or cancellations.
"Every donation makes a critical difference.'
The fact that O negative can be safely given to all blood types means it is especially useful in an emergency situation. Factors such as a patient's condition or a mass casualty event can mean there is less time to check blood type.
However only eight percent of the population have this blood type, which represents around 16 percent of hospital orders.
Blood has a shelf life of 365 days, so it is vital that stocks are continually replenished.
Donating blood takes around an hour, and each donation could save up to three lives. Men can give blood every three months and women every four months.
Anyone wishing to donate blood can visit www.blood.co.uk to book an appointment, use the GiveBlood app, or call 0300 123 23 23 to find your nearest session.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Knifeman terrified pub customers then cycled away
Pub customers and staff were threatened by a knifeman. Now police have issued an appeal for witnesses to the bizarre incident. At around 8pm on Friday, May 23, a man entered the Station House pub in Station Road, Padgate, in Warrington, and threatened the customers with a knife before leaving on a bike. No one was harmed in the incident. READ MORE: Girl, 13, 'topples into reservoir in front of her dad while taking photo' READ MORE: M62 drivers left 'trapped and starving' after serious crash shuts motorway for ten hours As he fled the scene he was seen by two witnesses to throw the knife into a bush. PC Katherine Molyneux said: 'I'd urge the two men who saw the suspect throw the knife into a bush to contact us to help us with our enquiries. "The same goes for anyone who witnessed the incident and has not yet spoken to police.' Cheshire Constabulary said: "As part of our enquiries a 35-year-old man has been arrested and has since been released on conditional bail." Anyone with information should contact Cheshire Police on 101 or via the website ( quoting 25000426706. Alternatively, information can be given anonymously by contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. --- Day in day out, our reporters in the Manchester Evening News newsroom bring you remarkable stories from all aspects of Mancunian life. However, with the pace of life these days, the frenetic news agenda and social media algorithms, you might not be getting a chance to read it. That's why every week our Features and Perspectives editor Rob Williams brings you Unmissable, highlighting the best of what we do - bringing it to you directly from us. Make sure you don't miss out, and see what else we have to offer, by clicking here and signing up for MEN Daily News. And be sure to join our politics writer Jo Timan every Sunday for his essential commentary on what matters most to you in Greater Manchester each week in our newsletter Due North. You can also sign up for that here. You can also get all your favourite content from the Manchester Evening News on WhatsApp. Click here to see everything we offer, including everything from breaking news to Coronation Street. If you prefer reading our stories on your phone, consider downloading the Manchester Evening News app here, and our news desk will make sure every time an essential story breaks, you'll be the first to hear about it. And finally, if there is a story you think our journalists should be looking into, we want to hear from you. Email us on newsdesk@ or give us a ring on 0161 211 2920.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Parental intuition better at spotting child illness than vital signs, study finds
Parental intuition is more likely to predict critical illness among children than vital signs used to monitor health, according to a study that strengthens the case for families to have a right to a second opinion under Martha's rule being piloted in the NHS. Experts from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, said parents should be treated as part of a child's care team in hospital after data on almost 190,000 emergency hospital visits involving children. The researchers found that prenatal concern was associated with a higher likelihood the child would need to be given help to breathe, or mechanical ventilation. The research, published in the Lancet's journal on Child and Adolescent Health, noted that in almost one in five cases (19.3%) parents raised concerns about deterioration before vital signs indicated that the child was deteriorating. It comes after the tragic case of Martha Mills, who developed sepsis after an injuring her pancreas when she fell off her bike. She died in 2021 when doctors ignored repeatedly the concerns of her parents about her deterioration while in hospital. A coroner ruled she would most likely have survived if doctors had identified the warning signs of her rapidly deteriorating condition and transferred her to intensive care earlier. A campaign by Martha's mother, Merope Mills, an editor at the Guardian, and her father, Paul Laity, led NHS hospitals to pilot Martha's rule, which gives patients and their loved ones the right to an urgent review of treatment. Last December, NHS England data showed the rule was having a 'transformative effect' in improving patient safety. In the Melbourne study, parents and carers were routinely asked: 'Are you worried your child is getting worse?' In 4.7% of cases parents said they were concerned their child was deteriorating. The research team found that parents' and carers' concerns were 'significantly' linked to the child being admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). When parents raised concerns, children were four times more likely to need ICU care, compared with children of parents who did not express concern. They also found that parental concern was more strongly associated with ICU admission than abnormal vital signs were – including abnormal heart rate, abnormal breathing or blood pressure. This could mean that taking parents' views into account could lead to earlier treatment, they added. Overall, they found that children of caregivers who voiced concerns were 'more unwell, they were more likely to be admitted to an inpatient ward, and stayed in hospital almost three times as long'. One of the lead authors of the paper, Dr Erin Mills, from Monash University's School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, said: 'We know that parents are the experts in their children, but stories of parents not being heard, followed by devastating outcomes, are all too common. We wanted to change that.' She added: 'If a parent said they were worried, their child was around four times more likely to require intensive care. That's a signal we can't afford to ignore. 'Parents are not visitors – they are part of the care team. We want every hospital to recognise that and give parents permission, and power, to speak up.'
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Give prostate cancer patients drug that halves risk of death, NHS told
Men with aggressive prostate cancer should be given a drug that halves their risk of death, experts have urged the NHS. British scientists have used AI to identify which men could most benefit from a treatment which is currently denied by the NHS in England. Researchers found that one in four men with high-risk prostate cancer, which has not yet spread, could see their risk of death halved if they were given the hormone treatment abiraterone. The rest could be spared such treatment, which can cause distressing side effects including loss of libido, as well as fatigue and weakness. The drug is routinely offered to men in Scotland and Wales with newly diagnosed high-risk prostate cancer which has not yet spread. However, the NHS refuses to fund it in England, even though it costs just £2.75 a day. As a result, around 8,400 men a year are denied the drug, which is only given to some men with advanced disease. The new study shows just how powerful the drug can be if targeted at the right candidates, in conjunction with standard therapy - cutting deaths by half among those with aggressive disease, while slashing the cost to the NHS. Experts said the findings from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and University College London (UCL) should prompt NHS officials to review the funding of the drug. The results will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting [MUST KEEP] which opens in Chicago on Friday. Abiraterone, discovered in the UK at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), works by inhibiting the production of testosterone in all tissues throughout the body, including in the tumour. The new test, developed by Artera Inc,. uses artificial intelligence to study images of tumour samples and pick out features that are invisible to the human eye. It was tested on biopsy images from more than 1,000 men with prostate cancer who were taking part in a major trial. Men were given a score depending on whether their disease was fuelled by male hormones known as androgens. In cases which were fuelled by the hormones - which makes the disease more aggressive - giving men abiraterone cut the risk of death after five years from 17 per cent to 9 per cent. In cases which were not, the risk went from 7 to 4 per cent among those given the drug, which experts said was not statistically or clinically significant. Such men would benefit from standard treatment, which would spare them the side effects which come with abiraterone, experts said. The current research received funding from Artera Inc., UK MRC and Prostate Cancer UK. Professor Nick James, Professor of Prostate and Bladder Cancer Research at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, who co-led the study said that the drug had already been found to have 'spectacular results' for many men. He said the new findings allowed the treatment to be far more narrowly targeted, to pick out those who would respond best, and spare others from side effects. The Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust said access to the life extending drug was currently 'a postcode lottery' despite the fact the drug costs just £2.75 a day. He urged NHS England to fund the drugs. Professor Kristian Helin, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, said: 'Abiraterone has been a game changer for treatment of prostate cancer, and I'm proud of the ICR's role in discovering and testing this drug which has extended the lives of so many men. 'Alongside our mission to find smarter, kinder treatments, we must ensure we are matching the right drugs to the right patients. This research, using artificial intelligence, provides an innovative route to testing prostate cancer patients to determine their treatment. I hope that this can be implemented so that all men with prostate cancer who will benefit from abiraterone can do so.' Study co-leader Professor Gert Attard, at the UCL Cancer Institute said advanced and aggressive prostate cancer could take a 'highly variable' path, with the new evidence showing how algorithms could extract information from routinely available pathology slides to tailor these treatments to specific patients. Dr Matthew Hobbs, Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: 'Prostate Cancer UK has been calling on the UK Government to approve this life-saving, cost-effective drug for over two years. These exciting results suggest a way to make this an even more cost-effective approach. We therefore echo the researchers' urgent call for abiraterone to be made available to those men whose lives it can save – men who, thanks to this research, we can now identify more precisely than ever before.' Giles Turner, 64, who lives in Brighton, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March 2023. He has been taking abiraterone for almost two years and has spent £20,000 on his treatment so far. He said: 'This is great research and adds even more reason for NHS England to start funding this treatment now. 'I find it very difficult to come to terms with having to pay for this treatment whereas if I was with the NHS in Scotland or Wales I would not. 'Even more importantly are the thousands of men in England who are missing out on this cheap, life-saving and cost-saving drug. Action must be taken by NHS England and DHSC right now.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
