England’s blood supplies are critically low following a cyber attack on a London pathology provider in June.
The nation had less than two days’ worth of a universal type of blood that can be given to anyone as of Thursday.
This is far below its target level of six days’ supply of all blood types at all times. Several other types of blood — B negative, O positive, A positive, AB negative and B positive — had between three and 5.5 days’ worth of supply.
Stocks of only two types (A negative and AB positive) were above the six-day threshold.
National Health Service Blood and Transplant asked hospitals to minimize their use of O negative blood, which is often used in emergencies, because of the shortage.
The organization issued an amber alert over supplies, giving hospitals the go-ahead to start emergency blood management processes.
This means they can send extra staff to labs to make sure O negative blood is only being used in the right circumstances, among other measures.
But hospitals will carry on performing urgent and emergency surgery, transplants, cancer surgery and blood transfusions for those with long term conditions, according to NHSBT.
The organization urged members of the public to donate blood to help shore up supplies. It wants to fill around 12,000 available appointments over the next two weeks.
‘Perfect storm’ of pressures
Unfilled blood donation appointments have left blood supplies in a relatively fragile state.
At the same time, a major cyber attack has pushed up demand, creating a “perfect storm” of pressure for blood stocks, the NHSBT stated.
Hospitals in the capital have been using more O negative blood than usual because of a recent cyber attack on pathology company Synnovis.
Clinicians normally test for a patient’s blood type before giving transfusions. But testing capacity at several major London hospitals remains low.
Members of the public in England don’t know their blood type unless they’ve previously donated blood. They aren’t usually tested at birth or as part of standard health checks.
“Three blood donations are needed every minute in hospitals to deal with emergencies, childbirth and routine treatments. Blood only has a shelf life of 35 days so the [health service] needs blood all year round,” NHSBT chief medical officer Gail Miflin said in a statement.
She said the country “ultimately” needed more people to become regular donors.
“Women can donate once every four months and men can donate once every three months,” she added.
Devastating Cyber Attack
The Synnovis cyber attack has resulted in weeks of chaos for providers including some of London’s biggest hospitals.
King’s College London Hospital Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital FT have been forced to cancel some surgeries, while family doctors across South East London are still facing significantly reduced blood testing capacity.
Hackers previously published around 400GB of data seized as part of the ransomware attack. It included at least some patient information like names and health system registration numbers.
A cyber gang called Qilin is reportedly behind the attack.
