Blood Centre Invites People to Donate Blood

The Blood Centre of the North Estonia Medical Centre invites people to donate blood, as the holiday period and hot weather have significantly depleted the blood reserves. However, the number of traumas and accidents is higher during summer and consequently, hospitals’ demand for blood is higher. These days, there is a particularly high demand for donors with 0, A and B rhesus negative blood, but people with all other blood groups are also welcome. The Blood Centre invites people to give blood in the Ädala street Blood Centre and DoonoriFoorum in central Tallinn.

“It would be great if donors who have complained about not having time to visit the Blood Centre due to their work could visit us during the holidays. Mornings are not very busy in the Blood Centre and making a donation is quicker. Moreover, the air-conditioned Blood Centre is a pleasant place to withdraw from warm or rainy weather,” says Dr Riin Kullaste, Director of the North Estonia Medical Centre’s Blood Centre.

Since many institutions are on holiday in summer, the Blood Centre cannot organise outings to its usual locations. “Hospitals require the help of donors to treat patients in summer, too. Sometimes even more than in winter months because people are more active and there are more accidents. Hospitals’ have had record high demand in July for several years,” Dr Kullaste adds. Consequently, the Blood Centre requests additional help from donors in the Blood Centre at Ädala 2 in Tallinn and DoonoriFoorum at Narva mnt 5. Donors who have given blood at these locations until 31 August are entered in a prize draw to win a trip for four to Stockholm and a day cruise for two to Helsinki.

The latest information about blood groups needed is available on the Blood Centre’s website at verekeskus.ee.

Suitable donors are healthy, rested people of 18-60 years of age, who have eaten and consumed sufficient liquids and weigh at least 50 kg. The minimum interval between full blood donations must be at least 60 days. Women are advised to wait 90 days.

Donor blood is used during complicated surgeries and labour and for treating patients who suffer from blood loss, severe trauma, anaemia, leukaemia, cancer, liver diseases, burns and other conditions. Donor blood also allows hospitals to perform many planned surgeries, which would otherwise not be possible due to the fear of excessive blood loss. Last year, 15,000 patients received blood transfusions in Estonia.

The Blood Centre (Ädala 2) is open from 8:00-16:00 Monday & Friday and 11:00-19:00 Tuesday-Thursday and DoonoriFoorum (Narva mnt 5, 4th floor of the Foorum Centre) from 11:00-19:00 Monday-Thursday and 11:00-16:00 on Friday.

The tour, organised under the slogan “Ka doonor on riigikaitsja” (“Donors defend the country, too”), was the 12^th of its kind and took the donor tents all across Estonia, running for a total of 20 days. The tour, which ran from May to September, stopped in nine cities: Tallinn, Keila, Rapla, Paide, Haapsalu, Rakvere, Pärnu, Tartu and Viljandi.

See you soon in blood centres, at donor days and in next year’s donor tents!