THERE MUST BE BLOOD

Fears of first ever 'Red Alert' low on life-saving supplies | Calls for 1m regular donors as crucial operations face axe

- BY MARTIN BAGOT

BLOOD services are suffering their worst ever supplies crisis, sparking fears lives will be lost unless more donors sign up.

Around 200,000 are urgently needed to avoid the country's first Red Alert, where stocks plummet to less than one day's worth.

And NHS Blood and Transplant said it needs one million regular donors to keep supplies healthy.

They are believed to be in short supply partly due to more people working from home since Covid.

Most donation centres are in cities or large towns and, with fewer people commuting, there were 785,000 registered donors as of April - 2% of the population. That is down from 800,000 before the pandemic.

An ageing population also increases the demand for blood transfusions, as does the rising number of people with sickle cell disease.

The NHS aims to always have six days' stock. There are currently between two and three days' worth, but rates of donations are falling with 55,000 unfilled appointment slots in the next six weeks.