Do You Give Blood
Discussion
longshot said:
monthefish said:
Used to (religiously) but the attitude and staffing levels of the 'donation' centres really annoys me, and after one particularly bad incident, I haven't been back.
Make an appointment, then you can jump the queue. You can complain while you're donating lol.longshot said:
I notice that the Blood Transfusion Sevice are having a bit of a push at the moment to get more people donating
This really, really annoys me. In my area, the events are grossly oversubscribed with very long waiting times, so instead of plugging the budget into advertising (with a success rate of probably less than 0.1%) they should be directing the budget towards actually getting the donations from those who already willing.I'm curious what the bad incident was.
When I donated for the first time, they missed the vein and left me there with this huge needle stuck in my arm tissue, in absolute agony for about 20 minutes, squeezing like f
k with only a trickle of blood coming out.Only when they saw how little blood had come out did they realise what had happened.
It was such a releif when they took it out.
I did forgive them though.
monthefish said:
I stopped giving blood a while ago.
I started basically as soon as I was able to – my father has donated over 100 times and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I’d given about ten pints by my 21st birthday. One of my ‘best’ donations was in Glasgow a few years ago – I filled in the usual questionnaire and then on proceeding to the ‘bed’ to make the donation, a senior nurse asked me if I was 100% sure I hadn’t taken any paracetemol/alchohol etc in the last 24 hours – I paused, racked my brains, and said “yes, totally sure. Why?” (as you don’t usually get such a serious interrogation).
The nurse told me that my blood was going straight to a newborn in the local maternity hospital.
Sure enough, there was a chap hovering beside my bed and as soon as I was finished, sprinted off down the stair and I heard the screeching of tyres as he sped off. (Felt great, but I kept checking in my mind that I’d not had any ‘pollutants’ in the last 24 hours – funny how you doubt your own memory when the stakes are that high)
However, the last time I went to donate at my local place (they take over the local concert hall once every few months and it is usually very well attended). At the time, I was living nearby, and after a long day at work, I just wanted to see the kids before bed. So I nipped across to the hall – there were about 40 odd people still waiting to be processed. I spoke to the nurse and she told me they were closing in 5 minutes. I asked if I could ‘book in’ and then put the kids to bed, and then come back in 10 minutes and join the back of the queue (the queue would have taken at least 40 mins to process). I was told I couldn’t. (So much for desperately needing donors).
There would have been no difference to them whether I sat in the queue for 40 minutes, or whether I had nipped out for the first ten minutes and came back.
I know it’s not it’s not the recipients of the donation who were being difficult, and I know its not fair to punish them. It’s the system that really hacked me off. I see adverts on TV asking for donation (how much does a TV ad campaign cost?) when I firmly believe that that money could be far better spent on staffing at these events. There isn’t a shortage of willing donors – it’s just that the process is unnecessarily difficult and long winded that a lot of people just don’t have the time. The whole process usually takes well over an hour, when the important bit (the actual donation) takes only around 10 minutes. Something seriously wrong there.
I did write to the Blood Transfusion about my concerns in the hope that they might act upon it, but the first letter got ignored. My second letter got a bullsh!t generic response.
I don’t want thanks or any recognition for donating. I just want the inconvenience to be minimised as far as possible, and I don’t think this is an unreasonable request.
To date, I’ve given a total of about 18 donations, so hopefully I’ve put more into the system than I or my family will ever need, and I’d happily start donating again once they’ve sorted themselves out. Stories such as the OP certainly make me feel more inclined to.
I started basically as soon as I was able to – my father has donated over 100 times and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I’d given about ten pints by my 21st birthday. One of my ‘best’ donations was in Glasgow a few years ago – I filled in the usual questionnaire and then on proceeding to the ‘bed’ to make the donation, a senior nurse asked me if I was 100% sure I hadn’t taken any paracetemol/alchohol etc in the last 24 hours – I paused, racked my brains, and said “yes, totally sure. Why?” (as you don’t usually get such a serious interrogation).
The nurse told me that my blood was going straight to a newborn in the local maternity hospital.
Sure enough, there was a chap hovering beside my bed and as soon as I was finished, sprinted off down the stair and I heard the screeching of tyres as he sped off. (Felt great, but I kept checking in my mind that I’d not had any ‘pollutants’ in the last 24 hours – funny how you doubt your own memory when the stakes are that high)
However, the last time I went to donate at my local place (they take over the local concert hall once every few months and it is usually very well attended). At the time, I was living nearby, and after a long day at work, I just wanted to see the kids before bed. So I nipped across to the hall – there were about 40 odd people still waiting to be processed. I spoke to the nurse and she told me they were closing in 5 minutes. I asked if I could ‘book in’ and then put the kids to bed, and then come back in 10 minutes and join the back of the queue (the queue would have taken at least 40 mins to process). I was told I couldn’t. (So much for desperately needing donors).
There would have been no difference to them whether I sat in the queue for 40 minutes, or whether I had nipped out for the first ten minutes and came back.
I know it’s not it’s not the recipients of the donation who were being difficult, and I know its not fair to punish them. It’s the system that really hacked me off. I see adverts on TV asking for donation (how much does a TV ad campaign cost?) when I firmly believe that that money could be far better spent on staffing at these events. There isn’t a shortage of willing donors – it’s just that the process is unnecessarily difficult and long winded that a lot of people just don’t have the time. The whole process usually takes well over an hour, when the important bit (the actual donation) takes only around 10 minutes. Something seriously wrong there.
I did write to the Blood Transfusion about my concerns in the hope that they might act upon it, but the first letter got ignored. My second letter got a bullsh!t generic response.
I don’t want thanks or any recognition for donating. I just want the inconvenience to be minimised as far as possible, and I don’t think this is an unreasonable request.
To date, I’ve given a total of about 18 donations, so hopefully I’ve put more into the system than I or my family will ever need, and I’d happily start donating again once they’ve sorted themselves out. Stories such as the OP certainly make me feel more inclined to.
Until you go back, you won't know if they have "sorted themselves out" or not.
They are a lot quicker than they used to be mainly because they encourage you to make an appointment and they can organise manning levels etc around that.
My blood is used for little kids.
It used to have Baby Pack written on my form but now says neonatal.
They are a lot quicker than they used to be mainly because they encourage you to make an appointment and they can organise manning levels etc around that.
My blood is used for little kids.
It used to have Baby Pack written on my form but now says neonatal.
Miguel Alvarez said:
Not complaining as such but its another one of those industries/situations where I'm sure they'd get more people if the hours weren't during office hours.
My 25th donation will be in March. Ours books appointments up to 7pm. Would be nice for a little later, but the staff are there from before 12 to get set up. After many years of not donating, using the excuse of skydiving, so might have to go and make an unexpected jump at any time 
, I started donating platelets a few years ago. I hate needles and the like, so I just look the other way when I'm being plugged in!
It's a bit more of a faff, but not too much bother in the grand scheme of things. Takes an hour or so, and you can donate much more frequently as you get most of the red cells back after extracting the bits they want. Works out about monthly at the moment for me.
ALthough I did just get turned away from my last session due to too low a resting pulse rate (below 50). I'm currently waiting for the GP to confirm to them that it's just that I'm a finely honed athelete, and not about to expire on their recliner!
, I started donating platelets a few years ago. I hate needles and the like, so I just look the other way when I'm being plugged in!It's a bit more of a faff, but not too much bother in the grand scheme of things. Takes an hour or so, and you can donate much more frequently as you get most of the red cells back after extracting the bits they want. Works out about monthly at the moment for me.
ALthough I did just get turned away from my last session due to too low a resting pulse rate (below 50). I'm currently waiting for the GP to confirm to them that it's just that I'm a finely honed athelete, and not about to expire on their recliner!
fireturk said:
yep, think i'm up to pint 40 or something.
not needed any as an adult, but as a kid I needed some after going through a car windscreen-----from the outside to the inside!!! :-(
I didn't think you could donate if you'd been a recipient, I checked again last year and was told it was still a no, has this changed recently?not needed any as an adult, but as a kid I needed some after going through a car windscreen-----from the outside to the inside!!! :-(
Edited by fireturk on Tuesday 8th January 15:40
longshot said:
Club biscuits, Walker's crisps. 
Crikey, I want to move to where you live. Not seen a Club biscuit in years, and we get cheapo crappy crisps too. B+ from me, been giving for 30 yrs. Although now I know some are getting Club biscuits and walkers crisps, I might go on strike.
Tightwad West London donor service, the blood sucking leaches!
monthefish said:
longshot said:
monthefish said:
Used to (religiously) but the attitude and staffing levels of the 'donation' centres really annoys me, and after one particularly bad incident, I haven't been back.
Make an appointment, then you can jump the queue. You can complain while you're donating lol.longshot said:
I notice that the Blood Transfusion Sevice are having a bit of a push at the moment to get more people donating
This really, really annoys me. In my area, the events are grossly oversubscribed with very long waiting times, so instead of plugging the budget into advertising (with a success rate of probably less than 0.1%) they should be directing the budget towards actually getting the donations from those who already willing.I'm curious what the bad incident was.
When I donated for the first time, they missed the vein and left me there with this huge needle stuck in my arm tissue, in absolute agony for about 20 minutes, squeezing like f
k with only a trickle of blood coming out.Only when they saw how little blood had come out did they realise what had happened.
It was such a releif when they took it out.
I did forgive them though.
monthefish said:
I stopped giving blood a while ago.
I started basically as soon as I was able to – my father has donated over 100 times and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I’d given about ten pints by my 21st birthday. One of my ‘best’ donations was in Glasgow a few years ago – I filled in the usual questionnaire and then on proceeding to the ‘bed’ to make the donation, a senior nurse asked me if I was 100% sure I hadn’t taken any paracetemol/alchohol etc in the last 24 hours – I paused, racked my brains, and said “yes, totally sure. Why?” (as you don’t usually get such a serious interrogation).
The nurse told me that my blood was going straight to a newborn in the local maternity hospital.
Sure enough, there was a chap hovering beside my bed and as soon as I was finished, sprinted off down the stair and I heard the screeching of tyres as he sped off. (Felt great, but I kept checking in my mind that I’d not had any ‘pollutants’ in the last 24 hours – funny how you doubt your own memory when the stakes are that high)
However, the last time I went to donate at my local place (they take over the local concert hall once every few months and it is usually very well attended). At the time, I was living nearby, and after a long day at work, I just wanted to see the kids before bed. So I nipped across to the hall – there were about 40 odd people still waiting to be processed. I spoke to the nurse and she told me they were closing in 5 minutes. I asked if I could ‘book in’ and then put the kids to bed, and then come back in 10 minutes and join the back of the queue (the queue would have taken at least 40 mins to process). I was told I couldn’t. (So much for desperately needing donors).
There would have been no difference to them whether I sat in the queue for 40 minutes, or whether I had nipped out for the first ten minutes and came back.
I know it’s not it’s not the recipients of the donation who were being difficult, and I know its not fair to punish them. It’s the system that really hacked me off. I see adverts on TV asking for donation (how much does a TV ad campaign cost?) when I firmly believe that that money could be far better spent on staffing at these events. There isn’t a shortage of willing donors – it’s just that the process is unnecessarily difficult and long winded that a lot of people just don’t have the time. The whole process usually takes well over an hour, when the important bit (the actual donation) takes only around 10 minutes. Something seriously wrong there.
I did write to the Blood Transfusion about my concerns in the hope that they might act upon it, but the first letter got ignored. My second letter got a bullsh!t generic response.
I don’t want thanks or any recognition for donating. I just want the inconvenience to be minimised as far as possible, and I don’t think this is an unreasonable request.
To date, I’ve given a total of about 18 donations, so hopefully I’ve put more into the system than I or my family will ever need, and I’d happily start donating again once they’ve sorted themselves out. Stories such as the OP certainly make me feel more inclined to.
I started basically as soon as I was able to – my father has donated over 100 times and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I’d given about ten pints by my 21st birthday. One of my ‘best’ donations was in Glasgow a few years ago – I filled in the usual questionnaire and then on proceeding to the ‘bed’ to make the donation, a senior nurse asked me if I was 100% sure I hadn’t taken any paracetemol/alchohol etc in the last 24 hours – I paused, racked my brains, and said “yes, totally sure. Why?” (as you don’t usually get such a serious interrogation).
The nurse told me that my blood was going straight to a newborn in the local maternity hospital.
Sure enough, there was a chap hovering beside my bed and as soon as I was finished, sprinted off down the stair and I heard the screeching of tyres as he sped off. (Felt great, but I kept checking in my mind that I’d not had any ‘pollutants’ in the last 24 hours – funny how you doubt your own memory when the stakes are that high)
However, the last time I went to donate at my local place (they take over the local concert hall once every few months and it is usually very well attended). At the time, I was living nearby, and after a long day at work, I just wanted to see the kids before bed. So I nipped across to the hall – there were about 40 odd people still waiting to be processed. I spoke to the nurse and she told me they were closing in 5 minutes. I asked if I could ‘book in’ and then put the kids to bed, and then come back in 10 minutes and join the back of the queue (the queue would have taken at least 40 mins to process). I was told I couldn’t. (So much for desperately needing donors).
There would have been no difference to them whether I sat in the queue for 40 minutes, or whether I had nipped out for the first ten minutes and came back.
I know it’s not it’s not the recipients of the donation who were being difficult, and I know its not fair to punish them. It’s the system that really hacked me off. I see adverts on TV asking for donation (how much does a TV ad campaign cost?) when I firmly believe that that money could be far better spent on staffing at these events. There isn’t a shortage of willing donors – it’s just that the process is unnecessarily difficult and long winded that a lot of people just don’t have the time. The whole process usually takes well over an hour, when the important bit (the actual donation) takes only around 10 minutes. Something seriously wrong there.
I did write to the Blood Transfusion about my concerns in the hope that they might act upon it, but the first letter got ignored. My second letter got a bullsh!t generic response.
I don’t want thanks or any recognition for donating. I just want the inconvenience to be minimised as far as possible, and I don’t think this is an unreasonable request.
To date, I’ve given a total of about 18 donations, so hopefully I’ve put more into the system than I or my family will ever need, and I’d happily start donating again once they’ve sorted themselves out. Stories such as the OP certainly make me feel more inclined to.
I used to work for the ‘English (and North Wales) blood service’ and I can tell you the TV adverts haven’t been on since 2008 mainly due the downturn in the economy. Any you’ve seen since then are free as part of a broadcaster’s public service remit.
New donors are need all the time as around 10% of regular (those who give at least once every two years) have to stop permanently usually due to a change in their health.
Sessions are always busier for the first hour after they start, and in the evenings, appointments usually help. Probably not much use for most people but late afternoons are often very quiet.
Looking at stock levels (on the website) at the moment they are OK, with an average of five days stock across all groups. But they are having a push as the trend for the last month or so has been downwards.
I gave blood once a couple of years back. I'm not sure how useful it was as they was unable to extract the full amount from me. The nurse in attendance kept me there for an extra 5minutes compared to my other friends who I went with. The nurse even wiggled the tube around inside my arm (which didn't feel too nice).
Left me with a massive bruise that took over a month to fully go away. I wouldn't mind giving blood again, just don't want that bruise there. (and concerned what affect it might have on lifting weights)
Left me with a massive bruise that took over a month to fully go away. I wouldn't mind giving blood again, just don't want that bruise there. (and concerned what affect it might have on lifting weights)
Yes I do give blood and will be giving blood on Sunday, even though I'm a bloody nightmare with needles.
Editted to add- This will be my 4th donation, twice I've just shown up on the day and once I actually booked myself in, the one time I booked it was for 2:30, I showed up 10 minutes early so had plenty of time, I was eventually hooked up for my blood to be taken at 3:45. On the 2 occasions I've shown up without booking they've had me hooked to the bag within 20-30 minutes.
Is it selfish to just show up without booking? Maybe. But the longer I sit around waiting the more likely I am to just give up and walk out, because the build up is the worst part for me, so getting sorted out quickly is a priority in my head.
I also agree with them doing more donations on weekends, but the last time I mentioned it to one of their call centers (they phoned to ask how my donation went) I was told "the places we like to use are booked at weekends".
Editted to add- This will be my 4th donation, twice I've just shown up on the day and once I actually booked myself in, the one time I booked it was for 2:30, I showed up 10 minutes early so had plenty of time, I was eventually hooked up for my blood to be taken at 3:45. On the 2 occasions I've shown up without booking they've had me hooked to the bag within 20-30 minutes.
Is it selfish to just show up without booking? Maybe. But the longer I sit around waiting the more likely I am to just give up and walk out, because the build up is the worst part for me, so getting sorted out quickly is a priority in my head.
I also agree with them doing more donations on weekends, but the last time I mentioned it to one of their call centers (they phoned to ask how my donation went) I was told "the places we like to use are booked at weekends".
Edited by MentalSarcasm on Tuesday 8th January 20:13
Yup, I give blood. I'm also O-Neg, given 7 times so far! Last time was entertaining, I always look away when they stick the needle in (because I'm a fairy) and all I heard was "oops", looked over to see my arm caked in blood, splatter marks over the machinery and the poor chap trying to stick the needle in!
Turns out he had a poor aim and I have rather good blood pressure!
Turns out he had a poor aim and I have rather good blood pressure!
I can't stand needles and always look away when they stick the big one in. I was going to say the one that looks like a drain pipe but that may put any potential donors off. 
You can look at it as a regular mini physical too.
You get your blood pressure checked and full blood work done too.
You can look at it as a regular mini physical too.
You get your blood pressure checked and full blood work done too.
Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff