Blood Donors Are The Essential Glue That Binds Together Patient Outcomes

The New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Science (NZIMLS) puts our full support behind National Blood Donor Week (June 13 – 19 ). The NZ Blood Service provides a critical and essential role in providing the blood products for our most vulnerable patients. Blood donations are vital to ensuring that lives are saved and quality of life is preserved for patients receiving harrowing treatments across the motu. It is a way that members of the public can give something that is the equivalent of liquid gold for those that desperately need blood products to not only survive but also to be part of the social fabric most of us take for granted.

‘Most people are probably unaware but we have medical laboratory scientists and technicians, and expert donor nurses all working together to provide this vital service for all New Zealanders’, says Terry Taylor NZIMLS president.

‘I call on members of the public to come forward and support the drive of the NZ Blood Service to recruit new donors. From my personal experience of being a plasma donor I can think of no more rewarding role to play in the health system. To have had first hand experience in my diagnostic job with some of the sickest patient’s we have, to be a donor is quite frankly the least someone in my role can do to support these vulnerable patients’, says Taylor.

The work that the NZ Blood service and in particular the role of donors to the sustainable functioning of our health system should never be underestimated. I encourage those who are thinking of coming forward to pop into their nearest donor centre or call 0800 GIVE BLOOD (0800 448 325) to do something that has a real positive outcome for the recipient of the liquid gold.

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