This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
England boosting plasma stocks for patients
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) has announced that it is opening 14 more blood plasma donation centres to urgently collect plasma for coronavirus treatment trials and potential general use in hospitals.
The new centres will open across November and December, increasing the number of donor centres by 50 per cent, from 28 to 42.
The new locations will mean that 80 per cent of potential donors across England can reach one of the donor centres within 45 minutes. The creation of the 14 additional pop-up centres will be supported by recruiting a further 373 donor carers and nurses across all donor centres.
The NHS trials of convalescent plasma are the largest randomised controlled trials for this treatment of coronavirus, and also the first to reach 1,500 randomisations. NHSBT is now encouraging people in these areas who have had coronavirus to offer to donate.
Donations are urgently needed so that if the trial confirms patient benefit, plasma can be made available for general use in the NHS. The trials results could come before the end of the year.
Convalescent plasma is the antibody-rich plasma of people who’ve had coronavirus, which can be transfused into people who are struggling to develop their own immune response. The antibodies could slow or stop the virus spreading, which could save lives.
There is promising evidence for the effectiveness of convalescent plasma but before general use patient benefit needs to be demonstrated in randomised control trials.
David Roberts, NHSBT Associate Medical Director for Blood Donation, said: “We have so far seen a fantastic response from the public coming forward to donate plasma. We are rapidly building our capability to collect plasma so that we can move into supplying hospitals at scale, should the trial demonstrate patient benefit. With 14 new centres – an overall total of 42 donation centres and pop-ups across the country – we need people in these areas who have had Covid-19 to come forward and donate plasma for patients. You could save lives.”
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