Health workers in Oz give blood

Posted: 28 June 2012 by Rob Dabrowski

Midwives and nurses down under have been rolling up their sleeves to give blood this week.

Those working in the New South Wales area have been asked to do so due to a ‘critical’ shortage of blood stocks.

This week members of the New South Wales Nurses Association (NSWNA) have been donating blood at hospitals across the north coast and mid-north coast.

They have been asked to do so as part of a year-long push to improve the number of regular donors.

Brett Holmes, the general secretary of the NSWNA, said the health workers understood how important blood donations were, especially in regional areas.

In a statement he said: 'This is a massive network that can be tapped into and that is what we are trying to do.

'After all, it only takes an hour of your time, yet one donation can save up to three lives.'

He added that the NSWNA hopes a ‘large numbers of union members’ will help to ‘overcome the current critical shortage’ of blood stocks.

The move comes after earlier this month the Australian Red Cross announced that it only had a large enough supply of blood for just over two days. 

Supplies were even lower for some specific blood types, with less than one day of O-negative blood remaining.