First, Canadian Blood Services cut down on the number of communities to host mobile blood collection clinics. Then they cut down on the number of days for each visit in the final location in our region, Timmins. Now they’re eliminating those visits altogether.
“We’re making a change in Sudbury, where we’re converting the Sudbury centre to a plasma site,” according to Peter MacDonald, Canadian Blood Services donor relations director for Ontario, “which means there won’t be whole blood collections which are the mobile events like in Timmins in Northern Ontario.”
MacDonald offers assurances that hospitals will still have all the blood they need.
Plasma cannot be collected in a mobile setting.
“Plasma-derived products are used for people with compromised immune systems,” says MacDonald. “We’re seeing demand move up. We’re looking to improve the sufficiency of supply by collecting more plasma, which leads to the manufacture of these type of products for folks who use them on an ongoing basis.”
The final mobile collection event in Timmins takes place in November.