World Blood Donor Day - June 14th 2009

It's World Blood Donor Day, an annual day around the globe to celebrate the amazing gift of life that blood donation and transfusion gives to thousands of people every day, and especially to promote volunteer blood donation (as opposed to paid donors), as this ensures the safest supply of blood.

'If you call them, they will come...'

Spain


Italy


Canada


Testing a donor's blood pre-donation for haemoglobin levels in the olden days



'That wasn't so bad...'









This is what happens to your blood



In the past it used to be stored in glass jars, as these old Red Cross pictures show





The finished product



Pure human solidarity



Today and every day 1,700 people in the UK will receive a blood transfusion

Want to learn more? Click these links:

Union official's last minute hot air

Last week (26/03/09) the Evening Mail ran this story covering the closure of Birmingham's blood processing, quality monitoring and NAT labs. Tomorrow will be their final day.

Please click for a larger readable version.



Read the story online here.

It is based on a press release from full time Unite officials. This blog has objections from the very first sentence which says: 'Union leaders are trying to halt controversial plans...'.

There can be no doubt that throughout this entire campaign 100% of the energy, sweat, tears and sleepless nights have been spent by unpaid union stewards, active members and their workmates. In fact there are quite a few well-remembered instances of union leaders and officials discouraging and obstructing NBS workers' campaigning efforts.

That is not to say that these officials have not been part of active struggles earlier in their lives, but in the case of the fight against NBS restructuring it is not true to say that they were part of it other than to make vague grand rhetorical statements for press releases.

Now this blog steps down from its soapbox to accept that the choice of wording in the first sentence was made by the journo. The real issue is - what good are statements like these after it is too late to save the Brum blood centre? More of a fight was needed a long time ago. As mentioned above, this was not made easy for us.

IWW Blood Service Valentine's Day of Action

On Saturday 14th February 2009 West Midlands IWW held a cavalcade to raise awareness of cuts taking place at the Birmingham blood centre this March.

The IWW is a union with members working in the National Blood Service. They will be affected when the local blood processing lab shuts and transfers its work to a new centralised ‘super-centre’ in Bristol. Staff believe this is a risky plan which could delay urgent specialist blood products from reaching patients in West Midlands hospitals. Around 70 jobs will go with the closure.

The mobile demonstration, including a van with banners, cyclists and cars, set off from close by the soon-to-be-slashed blood centre and passed the Queen Elizabeth hospital and medical school, before making stops at Selly Oak, City and the Children’s hospitals. Road users were made aware of the cuts as the cavalcade travelled around Birmingham’s main arteries. Around 30 protestors wound up the day leafleting the public in New Street outside the donor centre. The blood service depends on the generous donations of the public - many more will need to receive a blood transfusion at some point in their life.

Click on pictures to see bigger version













The campaign has not managed to save Birmingham’s blood processing lab, but on the positive side, opposition to the plans from workers and their supporters has meant that Birmingham will keep its vital red cell crossmatching lab, and in the North and South-East, blood processing centralisation plans were halted completely.

IWW Valentine's Day Blood Service protest - 14th Feb 2009

On Saturday 14th February the IWW is taking a mobile protest to hospitals around the city, to inform the public and healthworkers about the looming closure of the Birmingham blood processing lab in March. This vital link in the blood supply chain is to be transferred down to Bristol under a centralisation regime, with the loss of around 70 jobs, leaving local hospitals’ blood supply at the mercy of the clogged motorways of the South-West of England.

The IWW, along with other unions and organisations, has campaigned against this dangerous move during the last few years. Unsurprisingly when management proposed these cuts there was the bare minimum of consultation with hospitals and none with the public. Now that the cuts are happening, the least we can do is take the message to the streets and make sure that Birmingham is well informed of exactly what is happening to our public services.

Show some love for the blood service on Valentine’s Day!

• We need cyclists! Lots and lots of cyclists! - To form the body of the convoy behind a large van with banners.
• We also need car drivers who can carry extra protestors. As many as possible.
The protest will meet at Birmingham Uni North gate turning circle, pass the Blood Centre and the QEH/Women’s hospital in Edgbaston, then call at Selly Oak, City, and end up at the Children’s hospital in the city centre.

Meeting points
@ B’ham Uni North Gate (Prichatts Rd) assemble from 11am
@ Selly Oak Hospital (Oak Tree Lane) approx 12 noon – 12.30pm
@ City Hospital (Dudley Road) approx 1.30 pm – 2pm
@ Children’s Hospital (Steelhouse Lane) approx 2.45pm
Finishing in the city centre on foot at 4.30pm

Please put this date into your diaries, and help us build numbers by letting your friends and family, workmates, neighbours and union contacts know about the event. Leaflets and posters are available now. For more info, to confirm attendance, to book a seat as a car passenger, or to get copies of the pre-event leaflet please contact iww.nbs[AT]gmail.com (replace [AT] with @)

Minutes from Leeds Scrutiny Committee regarding NBS strategy

Leeds Scrutiny Committee, which examines proposals for changes in public services and resources, recently held a meeting which was attended by union stewards representing the NBS staff, and management and HR representing the directors and their strategy of proposed lab closures.

The Committee was extremely angry at the way that they felt that they had been left out of the consultation process until all the decisions on the future of Leeds blood centre had been made.



You can read the minutes HERE.

'No-show Gisela Stuart urged to quit hospital committee'

A recent Birmingham Mail story revealed that Gisela Stuart, Labour MP for Edgbaston (location of Birmingham's blood centre), and also stakeholder governor of Birmingham University Hospital Trust, failed to turn up to any of the Trust governor meetings that were held in the last 12 months.



NBS workers at the Birmingham centre were extremely unsurprised to hear about this. Some members of staff contacted her immediately when the job losses in her constituency were announced in late 2006. Yet rather than properly interrogating the NBS reconfiguration plans as other, more responsible, MPs and councillors chose to do, she was heard on live local radio saying that in an emergency blood would 'just be rushed up in a helicopter'. Staff were amused and intrigued at this mention of the mystery helicopter which hadn't appeared in any strategy budgets, or in fact anywhere outside of Gisela Stuart's head...

So from the outset Gisela Stuart MP seemed to have aligned herself in favour of the closure of a major health facility and workplace in her constituency.

Later, after the reprieve of Birmingham's red cell crossmatching lab was announced, a story appeared in the local paper unhelpfully trumpeting that Gisela Stuart had been heavily involved in securing this victory. This was false on two counts - not only had she played next to no role whatsoever in events, but the 'victory' was a small one and the area was still set to suffer greatly from the proposed closure of the blood processing department.

Many letters have turned up in the local press expressing worry about the Birmingham blood centre being decimated, at the same time as a gigantic new multimillion-pound superhospital is being build right next door, looming over it in fact. Surely a hospital this massive and shiny (set to replace the current University Hospital) needs to have a fully functioning, top class, blood centre on its doorstep - not just a big chiller?

Well, now we know the reason that Gisela Stuart doesn't seem to be concerned about this situation. Because she is not concerned with Birmingham University Hospital at all. Here we see yet another case of an MP pointlessly holding a seat, like some kind of badge of honour, on a decision-making body that they don't care anough about to take part in. That place would be better off given to a long term patient or service user who depends on the hospital for their wellbeing.

Yorkshire Evening Post - 'Fears over plans to move Leeds blood centre'

Published: 25th July 2008
By Katie Baldwin
Health Reporter

Councillors have raised concerns about plans to move services from a blood processing centre in Leeds. The NHS Blood and Transplant Service (NHSBT) wants to scale down the Seacroft centre in Leeds, a move which would affect up to 70 staff.

That could mean blood processing and testing no longer took place in the city.

Leeds City Council's Health Scrutiny Board has now heard evidence from staff at the centre, NHSBT representatives and Leeds Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Board members were annoyed that councillors and Leeds PCT had not been consulted sooner and raised concerns about the impact on Leeds patients.

Scrutiny board chairman Coun Pauleen Grahame (Lab, Cross Gates and Whinmoor) said: "It is vitally important that any changes are properly thought through – after all, lives could be at stake.

"Not only that, but I am very worried about the implications of this closure for the Leeds economy and for the future of Seacroft Hospital.

"The blood treatment centre is a major employer of skilled staff, and it would be a great shame for the city if they were forced to move elsewhere to find work."

You can read the full story and add your comments (please do!) HERE.

NBS SOS benefit party - July 19th

The IWW, a union with members at the National Blood Service, is hosting a fundraising night on 19th July in London, to raise money for the campaign against service cuts.

There will be a fundraising club night organised by JustDefy! for the NBS campaign in Camberwell, south london, on saturday the 19th of July from 11pm. There is a free festival on camberwell green that day too, and we are the afterparty.

Venue is The Redstar, 319 Camberwell Road, Camberwell SE5 0HQ

Price: £5 all night all cash to the campaign

Buses: 36, 436, 171, 185, 12, 35, 45, 40, 42, 68, 468, 148, 176





The night is headlined by legendary underground party DJ Jerome Hill, a techno DJ with the flawless skills of a hip hop spinner, he's played verywhere from Glade to Sao Paulo to Hackney Wick:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65313308
and his label: http://www.dont-recordings.com/

Dubstep from Louise+1: http://www.myspace.com/louiseplus1

Drum n bass from JNK: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=153482494

Acid techno from Gergl (http://www.serious-business.org.uk/)
and old school hardcore from Metra, who wasn't alive then obviously, but knows what he's doing.

Please come down to support this night if you can, and you can also help by publicising it on your myspace / facebook profile, or your own blog or website, if you have one. Thanks!

WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY - 14TH JUNE

Today is World Blood Donor Day, an annual event to promote and highlight the amazing and altruistic gift of life which donors give.

Find out more here.

This year's theme is 'Many happy returns', a title chosen to remind us that it is important for donors to give not just once, but regularly, in order to maintain safe stock levels for our hospitals.

Find out about how and where you can donate near you at the National Blood Service website.

Below is the text from a new leaflet promoting both the Save Our Blood Service campaign and the BloodBan campaign.


An Injury to One is an Injury to All

Blood links all of us from donor to patient

It’s generally believed that we live in a selfish, even cruel, world. But humans constantly challenge this view with amazingly generous, social and altruistic behaviour.

Giving blood is pure human solidarity. A patient receiving a transfusion can look up at the pack of red cells feeding into their body and know that someone wanted them to live, without knowing who they are. Blood is a vital fluid that is common to us all.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Less than 5% of the eligible population give blood, and a lot of money is spent on adverts to recruit donors. At present, men who have sex with men are excluded from donating blood. The current opinion of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is that blood from a sexually active gay man may be more likely to carry infections than blood from a straight person. They claim that screening for disease would be too expensive, although they already screen all blood from heterosexuals, where STDs are on the rise.

Logically if gay men could donate, the donor pool would be instantly increased and less would need to be spent on advertising.

Pressure from the BloodBan campaign and from health workers through their unions has caused NHSBT decision makers to agree to incorporate a review of screening policy as one of the priorities under an equality impact assessment to be rolled out across NHSBT in the coming year.

Find out more at: www.bloodban.co.uk

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NHSBT is making cuts to our blood service nationally. A money-driven restructuring plan is slashing the number of labs which test, filter and process blood. This is wasting the skills of 100s of technicians and scientists who are losing their jobs, and means that hospitals’ blood supply is further away, a huge risk in case of emergencies.

Centralisation like this is often a prelude to privatisation. We all know the decline in care which the private sector brings when it gets its fangs into the NHS. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that a purely voluntary blood service, free from profit, is the safest way to avoid infection. We share a free blood service with less than 25% of the world’s countries – we need to protect it as any one of us could need a transfusion to save our life.

Save Our Blood Service has been fighting cuts in NHSBT. We think that there is a chain of solidarity from the blood donor, to the healthcare workers, right through to the patient receiving the gift of life. We want all of these people to have a greater say in our health service. If you believe the same, we want to hear from you.

To find out more email: nbs.sos@gmail.com or visit: www.nbs-sos.blogspot.com

Demonstration! Watford, Friday 11th April

STOP SLASHING THE BLOOD SERVICE!

Protest at the NBS bosses' HQ

Friday 11th April 2008

The bosses at the National Blood Service want to close labs
and slash 600 jobs in the NBS. Now they are hiding the
findings of a review into whether or not this is safe to do.
Join us at this protest to demand the review findings are
fully revealed, before it's too late to stop these dangerous
cuts.





Assembly point:

Watford Junction Station, 12pm


Demonstration supported by:
• Midlands Network of Health Campaigns
• Bloodban (www.bloodban.co.uk)
• Stop Haringey Health Cuts Coalition
• The Healthworkers Union (IWW-IU 610)
• Hackney Solidarity Network

Birmingham keeps the pressure on

Photos sent in of an awareness-raising street stall held last weekend in Birmingham by staff and their friends and supporters (click for large version).











Keep up the good work out there - many people, including donors and recipients of blood transfusions, are still unaware of the proposed restructuring of our service. If you have any photos like this of street stalls or protests from your area then send them into the campaign email address:

nbs.sos[AT]gmail.com
(replace [AT] with @)

Birmingham solidarity demo - 31st January

Here are some pictures (click for larger version) sent in of the solidarity demonstration held in support of the long-serving lifesavers of the Birmingham donor testing lab who were made 'redundant' on 31st January, as their work was shipped off to the overloaded Bristol centre.

Birmingham NBS staff are proud to call you colleagues and friends.













See more here

Info coming very soon on the outcome of the strategic review!

Campaign update

The strategic review of the centralisation proposals is now complete, and NHSBT management will announce their intentions on February 1st.

In recent weeks, city councils have added to the pressure in opposition by coming out against the plans to close local processing and testing labs. In Birmingham a petition signed by over 7000 angry local residents was handed into the leader of the council. Even more local authorities have declared that if the review does not reconsider the cuts, they too will fight the proposals.

When parliament returned after the Christmas break this year, supporters of the campaign joined forces to greet Health Secretary Alan Johnson (ultimately responsible for decisions relating to the NHS) with a huge number of phone calls and emails protesting the cuts. With a high volume of calls on this issue, from not only this country, but as far afield as the US, Canada, and Poland, there could be no mistake that this issue matters to the public.



Meanwhile we have seen more evidence of why only 3 centres is too risky to accept, as a blood van was caught up in an accident on a motorway in the West Country:

Read the story here.

The support campaign is growing massively via the networking site facebook. The links below take you to various ways to keep informed of campaign news, and help to spread the word about the threatened cuts and the fight to stop them.

Save Our Blood Service facebook group (nearly 1000 members - please join and invite your friends)

Save Our NBS facebook profile (add as a friend)

Save Our National Blood Service ‘Cause’ application (please join and help to recruit)

Finally here is some satire which was written by one of the campaign’s supporters - a spoof interview with Fred Fullogarbage, chairman of a new conglomerate formed after a merger between our National Blood Service and the crashed bank Northern Rock…

A glimpse of the future?

Liverpool city council condemns cuts programme

Liverpool City Council has just adopted the following resolution over the closure of the Liverpool Blood Centre:-

"That this Council deplores the proposal to drastically reduce the
number of regional blood centres from 12 to 3 so called super centres
to serve the entire country. Council also deplores the inadequate
"consultation" which has taken place over this ill advised and
damaging proposal. Council condemns the potential significant loss of
skilled jobs and reduction in workforce size which will result if this
proceeds unchanged. Council also notes that this will severely stretch
the current close working relationships between the regional centres
and local hospitals.

Council recalls that the previous rationalisation of the National
Blood Service by the Tory Government in the 1990s was opposed by all
members on the City Council and calls for all party support against
this risky and unproven Labour Government proposal which is driven
purely by the desire to cut costs, possibly as a prelude to potential
privatisation of this profitable service. Council also requests all
Merseyside MPs to strenuously oppose this stupid plan."

[The agenda for the Liverpool City Council meeting is online here]

NBS campaigners at NHS demo in London

Staff and supporters march together with an urgent message.
Saturday 3rd November 2007

Facebook 'Save our Blood Service' group

Anyone with a Facebook account can join a group in opposition to the centralisation of blood testing and processing, and in favour of saving local labs and NBS staff's jobs. It has links to the petition and other ideas for supporters. The group currently has 662 members with more joining every week!

Simply use the Facebook search facility to find 'Save Our Blood Service'.

Please join it and invite all your friends, as this is a useful way to spread the word about the campaign.

Strategy review underway and everything to play for

The NBS centralisation strategy is currently undergoing review by the consultant agency McKinsey & Co. McKinsey are well-known for being the government's favourite choice of consultants in cases of NHS reorganisation (a.k.a. cuts), as this story illustrates, and boast Enron amongst their past clients...

Well-prepared NBS staff reps have been meeting with McKinsey to put forward our comprehensive arguments against the strategy. Here is one document for submission, which details not only the defensive case but suggests better alternative future directions for the NBS (link also added to links section on right of page).

The review alone is no guarantee that the restructuring plans will be stopped, so supporters can still help by contacting the media, who can help to raise awareness, or your city council, who can intervene if they feel they have not been properly consulted about what the closure of local labs will mean for hospitals.

This link will take you to a page where you can find your local Public and Patient Involvement Forum. This is another way for NHS users to formally get involved in debating plans for health service reconfigurations. Please send a copy of the document above to your area's PPI Forum.

Blog updates!

Announcing some new updates and links for this blog.

* Blood Service Chat is a brand new message board - for NHSBT staff, by NHSBT staff.
Get to know each other, have a laugh, share problems and advice, or generally moan and rant (anonymously) about anything. Friends welcome.
BSC was inspired by the massively successful Royal Mail Chat, which has helped posties build unity and communication during the hard times of their dispute with Royal Mail bosses.



* Two new campaign resources are now available to download. Please make copies yourself and help to distribute them both.
This is an up-to-date leaflet aimed at donors, patients, other healthworkers and the general public.
Here is the September edition of the NBS Worker, a new shop-floor staff newsletter. It is hoped the NBS Worker will help to bridge the information gap between centres and sectors, which existing news bulletins from the top are failing to do. Staff please get involved with contributing anything you want to - this newsletter belongs to you.
Links also added to the panel on the right.

* An additional resolution passed by Amicus staff in Manchester has been added to this post about the new proposals for testing in Bristol.
Thanks to a combination of solidarity from colleagues in other centres, and rational and assertive negotiating by staff-side reps, most of the major problems with the orignal drastic proposal have been binned - payments will be kept at the present level, the 6 day week is gone, and hours are improved. Some problems do remain with non-standard hours, but the new set-up has to pass a ballot of the Bristol Amicus membership before it goes live.

More community support for Blood Service staff

The team from local community newsletter Brumstar and the IWW union hung a 10 foot banner outside the Birmingham blood processing and testing centre last month, to show support for the staff inside and to raise awareness amongst the passing public, including patients and healthworkers at the QE hospital on the same site.







If you have more photos from around the country of demos in support of the Save Our Blood Service campaign, email them to:

nbs.sos[AT]gmail.com
(replace [AT] with @)

Sheffield council supports our campaign!

We are delighted to announce that following a debate held between NBS workers and management, Sheffield City Council (Health and Community Care Scrutiny and Policy Development Board) considered their position on the centralisation plans, and have come out publicly, strongly and thoroughly condemning the strategy.

The recent terrible flooding in England almost crippled Sheffield blood centre and it is testimony to the great skill and teamwork of NBS staff there and at connected sites that a reliable supply of blood products was able to be safely maintained to hospitals without too many difficulties. This is proof of the benefits of the Blood Service operating from many local depots and not piling all its eggs into 3 baskets with vulnerable supercentres.

It doesn't take much to persuade people of why we think the proposals are wrong, but well done to the supporters and reps at Trent NBS involved for winning us this valuable victory!

Read the full minutes of the debate on 11th June here

Here is the Council resolution, passed on 25th June 2007.

From Sheffield City Council
NATIONAL BLOOD SERVICE
The Board gave further consideration to its response to the presentation made by the National Blood Service upon the National Health Service Blood and Transplant Service Strategy 2006-10, considered by the Board at its meeting held on 11th June, 2007.
RESOLVED:
That in the light of the information made available, this Board
(a) views with grave concern the proposals outlined by the National Blood Service to re-organise the Service in England and Wales without sufficient evidence of the need to re-organise the Service and particularly with regard to the impact of the re-organisation proposals in the City,
(b) believes that these proposals could result in Manchester being the nearest Testing and Processing Site to the City and serving the whole of the North of England and Wales and the transfer of blood storage and distribution facilities in the City to Leeds, thereby putting at risk the availability of blood and blood products in the City, particularly in emergency situations;
(c) views with disquiet the lack of clarity as to whether or not the Strategy was formulated in consultation with medical experts and laboratory managers from local hospitals and if the strategy has the support of these professionals;
(d) notes with concern the fears expressed by the trades union and others that the proposals would have a severe impact upon the ability of the Children's Hospital to continue its internationally renowned work on children's leukaemia, the training arrangements for Consultant Haematologists in the City, the immediate availability of specialist blood components and the carrying out of specialist research and development activities such as stem cell research, which are presently supplied by the Sheffield Centre;
(e) does not accept the premise put forward by the National Blood Service that the NBS Centre in Sheffield was "not fit for purpose" when the Centre has recently under gone several major refurbishment projects and, in the opinion of managers, is now fit for purpose for at least another 10 years;
(f) would wish to express its dissatisfaction at the apparent lack of accurate costings for the proposals including transportation costs thereby not giving the Board any opportunity to reach "judgment" on the economic veracity of the proposals; (g) is of the view that the underlying philosophy behind the proposals is driven by economic consideration rather than service improvements particularly as no information regarding costings and deployment was made available to the Board;
(h) is concerned that this matter was brought to the attention of the Board in the first instance by the trades unions representing employees of the NBS in the City and not by the NBS and would urge the Secretary of State for Health to remind the Health bodies of their responsibility to engage in meaningful and comprehensive consultations with Local Authorities and other parties regarding proposals for service change and also to request in the strongest possible terms to examine closely the processes for disseminating information and engaging in consultation so as to ensure that substantial systemic improvements are made to prevent this situation arising again;
(i) believes that at a time when all agencies are committed to taking positive steps to reduce the environmental impact of road travel there would be every possibility of an adverse environmental impact through increased transportation of blood
products to the City together with the concomitant dangers of inaccessibility to the City in adverse weather conditions;
(j) whilst recognising that it is not within its remit to become involved with or comment upon the possible adverse economic impact of the proposals upon the City's regeneration would nevertheless urge the Leader of the City Council, the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Economic Regeneration, Culture and Planning and the Chief Executive to pursue this aspect of the proposals with the utmost vigour;
(k) requests that further proposals about this re-organisation be reported to the Board as a matter of urgency; and
(l) requests that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the Sheffield Members of Parliament, the Secretary of State for Health, the Core Cities and the other South Yorkshire Authorities.