• Blood donation is voluntary and non-remunerated
  • Donor guidelines exist to:
    • Ensure the safety of blood donors
    • Protect recipients from adverse effects of transfusion 
  • Donors with occupations where delayed fainting would be hazardous to themselves or others must only donate when going off-duty.
  • Hazardous hobbies should not be undertaken on the day of donation.
  • All serious adverse events of donation must be reported to SHOT / MHRA.
  • All donors should give informed consent. They must be informed of common risks:
    • Dizziness and fainting
    • Nerve injury
    • Haematoma formation
    • For donors of components by apheresis:
      • Citrate toxicity (metabolic acidosis, hypocalcaemia, hypokalaemia or hypomagnesaesmia leading to depressed myocardial function, arrhythmias, seizures or coagulopathy) 
      • Chilling on reinfusion
      • Red cell loss if the procedure has to be aborted or it becomes unsafe to return red cells
  • Information which should be given to prospective donors:
    • Educational materials about the blood donation procedure
    • Reasons for requiring a medical history
    • If deferred, the reason why
    • Information regarding personal data protection
    • For autologous donations:
      • That autologous donation may be insufficient to cover the transfusion requirement
      • That any unused autologous products will be discarded and not transfused to other patients
    • The need to inform the blood donation centre if any subsequent event develops that might affect component safety (any illness that develops within 14 days of transfusion).
    • The obligation of the donation centre to inform the patient if any abnormalities of significance to their health is detected
    • That donations will be tested for microorganisms as specified below
  • Donor age requirements:
    • First-time donors: age 17 – 60.
    • Repeat donors: 17 – 66. 
  • Donor weight requirements:
    • 50kg for regular donations
    • 70kg for double red cell donations
    • For women less than 65kg, the estimated blood volume should be calculated, and no more than 15% donated at any one time
  • Donation frequency:
    • Whole blood:
      • Males: every 3 months (maximum 4 donations a year)
      • Females: every 4 months (maximum 3 donations a year)
    • Platelets and plasma by apheresis: 
      • Platelets: maximum of 24 donations a year, with a minimum interval of 2 weeks between each donation
      • Plasma: maximum of 24 donations a year, with a maximum of 2.4L per month and 15L per year. 
    • Double red cell donation: only allowed once every 6 months
      • May allow a shorter interval if tests can prove donor is iron replete
  • Donation volumes:
    • Whole blood: at least 450mL±10% is required; generally 470-475mL is collected
      • Collection volume must never exceed >15% of the estimated blood volume
      • The most efficient way of measuring collection volumes is by weight: 1ml of blood weighs 1.06g
    • For apheresis:
      • The extracorporeal volume should never exceed 15% of the total blood volume (excluding volume of anticoagulant). The ECV volume calculation should take into account:
        • Weight
        • Haematocrit
        • Type of apheresis procedure
  • Haemoglobin screening:
    • Males: 135g/L
    • Females: 125g/L
  • Minimum blood tests:
    • Initial visit: FBC, serum albumin and total serum protein levels for plasma donors
    • Platelet count at each visit for platelet donors
    • For all donors: annual FBC
    • For plasma donors: annual albumin and total serum protein
  • Methods to reduce bacterial contamination of blood products:
    • Arm cleansing
    • Diversion of first 20ml of donated blood
    • Screening of platelet components via bacterial culture with a minimum hold period of 36hrs (allows a 7-day shelf life if culture bottles are negative after a minimum 6 hrs of incubation).
      • Alternatively, two-tests systems where platelets are sampled at 24hrs and 4 days can be employed to extend the shelf-life to 7 days.