[Closed] how much does a pint of blood cost the nhs

£300/ pint 5 years ago.

I donate platelets, I asked once (about platelets), and was surprised, I think it was pushing £1K

[quote=cynic-al ]I donate platelets, I asked once (about platelets), and was surprised, I think it was pushing £1K

Meh. I donate whole plates. Proper big ones!

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wanmankylung - Member
£300/ pint 5 years ago.

Whhaaaaa ... 😯

I was a regular donor for several years ... Used to donate twice a year.

cynic-al - Member
I donate platelets, I asked once (about platelets), and was surprised, I think it was pushing £1K

Whhhaaaa ... I too was a regular platelets donor for two years ... 😯

The only reason I stop because I am just simply too lazy to sit there for 1.5hr (think 2 to 2.5hr in total) getting bore ... they should have some pole dancers to entertain me while I donate life essence you know.

Once the nurse got a bit piss off with me because instead of platelets they got plenty of lard off me ... (think I ate something few days before ...) so needed more processing before they could use the platelets. 😀

I will start platelets donation again when life is less stressful.

I've stopped cos they don't do evenings so it's 3 hours out of a day off.

It's mostly tax these days and people won't pay it they'd rather sit at home drinking blood out of cans.

scotroutes - Member
cynic-al » I donate platelets, I asked once (about platelets), and was surprised, I think it was pushing £1K

Meh. I donate whole plates. Proper big ones!

You owe me a new non tea covered Macbook. PMSL at this.

Well I guess someone had to find him funny.

About as much as it costs them to change a light bulb then .

My Russian doctor friend told me to donate platelets because it could make me beautiful again ...

She explained the reasons behind it, think something to do with cleaning the blood while platelets are being filtered and back to the body etc, ... I just heard the word 'beautiful' and went for it.

😆

Probably will be a lot more if you factor in the compensation claims and ongoing care costs for all the hemophiliacs from the 1980s who picked up HIV and Hepatitis.

"I've stopped cos they don't do evenings"

Eh?

Well 250 mls of packed red cell for a dog costs about £250 from memory from the Pet blood bank which is a charity that can supply blood from donated pets to be given when needed.

Its not £300 a unit.

Its a lot less than that, I could find out for you, but whats the reason?

Couple of hundred quid, but probably more so because they sold it off to an american private company and there's an internal market propped up by a whole hoard of admindroids employed purely to bill one bit of the NHS for another bit of the NHS...

Its a lot less than that, I could find out for you, but whats the reason?

they sold it off to an american private company

The Tories privatised the nation's blood supply?! I can't believe that!

Well actually I can.

Mrs_oab uses three small vials of blood product a week, 150ml total.
Now these are shipped in from US.
The cost of the drugs is more than she earns as a teacher we are informed. 😯
Regularly the carrier bag handed to her by hospital is worth more than the car used to transport thrm home.

The NHS Blood Transfusion service charges: £121.85 per unit of blood.

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From IFLS
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/how-much-human-body-worth

Probably will be a lot more if you factor in the compensation claims and ongoing care costs for all the hemophiliacs from the 1980s who picked up HIV and Hepatitis.

yeah, they've been pretty selective about donors since the early 90s

I've got a lifetime ban due to some nefarious activity in my teens... my uncle didn't even want a kidney off me when he was clinging on to life on dialysis

ungrateful 🙄

The retail value (if that's the right word) in the Philippines was

3L of blood & 1L of platelets = ~£6,000*

My son's operation wasn't covered by insurance. We had quite a hefty bill to pay!

Tea and biscuits

No badge?

Forgot about the badges and the don't forget and thank you texts .

They seem a bit shy about it over here. In Kiwiland they would set up in the school library at my high school at least once a year - 20 mins off classes was plenty of motivation.

Same at Uni - the blood bank was pretty much a permanent fixture during term time. We used to time it before drinking binges - lowering the blood in your alcohol stream saved cash !

I'm not allowed to give blood here in Spain, in fact no one who lived in the UK during the mad cows crisis is allowed to.

ha! used to do that do hels -- over in Glasgow - donate late afternoon, out on the lash for cheap - they ran sessions and let you donate every quarter - I was surprised on moving to Edinburgh to find it was every 6 months (maybe they needed less??)

they sold it off to an american private company

Thats the Plasma service not the Blood & transplant side.

Could anyone else clarify please?

If it was the blood side privatised I would want paying for my blood donations.

On the donation-ease side. Even in Manchester its difficult to get an appointment.

I had to give a pint of blood every two weeks for about 8 months due to Hereditary Heamochromotosis... All that went in the incinerator. The crazy thing is that it is just loaded with iron and normal people could potentially just get rid of the excess.... still not allowed to donate now until I have a good to go note from the consultant.Crazy!! .... try this one... try finding out your blood group if you don't all ready know it?... impossible!!

"try finding out your blood group if you don't all ready know it?... impossible!!"

25 quid at the private clinic if you really need to know.

i did - i was in for 15 minutes , 3 days later the results were emailed to me followed up by a certificate.

im not allowed to donate due to prolonged use of anti malarials and significant time spent in malarial countries in the last few years.

Still cheaper than a pint of bulls semen. And a lot more useful too I imagine!

Hora, yes I believe it was only the plasma side of things - and noteworthy that most of that work was already in the US because UK blood supplies cannot be used to produce plasma products due to vCJD risk.

Ah I was confusing things with platelets donations too. Right, got it 😀

mogrim - Member

I'm not allowed to give blood here in Spain, in fact no one who lived in the UK during the mad cows crisis is allowed to.

I'm not allowed to because I received some UK blood in about 2005. Which seems weird, if my only risk factor is getting a transfusion, surely my blood is still on average safer than the blood stock.

I don't know about schools but they set up often here in the uni, I think mostly to collect amusing risk questionaires. We used to get them a lot at the bank, too- insert leech joke here

Is that real? So the Government of Spain thinks we are all biological risks?

Is that real? So the Government of Spain thinks we are all biological risks?

Probably not, but as Brits are the minority in Spain it's hardly a significant loss.

Still cheaper than a pint of bulls semen. And a lot more useful too I imagine!

Bulls semen would be better wall paper paste.

hora - Member

they sold it off to an american private company

source?

Thats the Plasma service not the Blood & transplant side.

Could anyone else clarify please?

As Z-11 says British plasma can't be used because of mad cow disease. But apparently it's just a matter of time before the restriction is lifted and British donated blood will start to be used by the profit-making US/Mitt Romney owned company.

How do you feel about a wealthy US Republican politician worth somewhere in the region of $250 million making money out of your freely donated blood hora?

Is that real? So the Government of Spain thinks we are all biological risks?

Ernie. Plasma not blood.

Read my post again hora. British plasma from donated blood can't be used because of mad cow disease, but the restriction is sure to be lifted - it's just a matter of time. When that happens British donated blood will be used by profit-making US owned PRUK.

My blood is used for blood transfusions.
'Sure to'

'Matter of time'

Right.

Can't donate in the US because of living in the UK during the 80's. They didn't say it was because of mad cows but that's what I assume it was.

'Sure to'

'Matter of time'

Right.

Well medical opinion appears to believe that the ban on British blood will not last forever, it's already been in place for about 20 years. Of course if you know better who am I to argue. But you did ask the question and invited people to answer.

I bumped into the husband of a woman in our drama group whilst donating platelets on Monday - apparently he works for (I think) BT, as a donor he has to do one session on his own time, then the next he can do in work time. I like that, more people should do that. 🙂

I've stopped cos they don't do evenings so it's 3 hours out of a day off.

More or less the reason I've stopped - the local donation centre only ever runs during the day on a Friday, and even if I have the day off, I'm invariably working on the Saturday which precludes a donation.

My suggestion that they try varying the time / day of the sessions was ignored.

Is that real? So the Government of Spain thinks we are all biological risks?

Yes, pretty much, at least when it comes to blood donation. Bloody immigrants 😀

I work for NHS Blood & Transplant - formerly in blood and now in transplant.

Blood donation is non-remunerated in the UK (thank goodness) and the supply chain in England and North Wales is run by NHSBT; separate national services are run in the other home countries.

However, NHSBT is the only service of the four to work on a "cost per unit" basis.

The cost to hospitals per unit of red cell is just under £122, having been >£140 in 2005/6. This is despite demand reducing by around 15-20% in that time.

These and all other blood products are charged on a cost basis (I don't know anything about all the conspiracies) and always with a knowledge that every pound we can save is one back at the NHS front line. Platelets cost about double the red cell price and some very specialised products much more again.

The single most expensive part is in collecting the blood from a donor, which varies from around £20-40 per unit, depending on where in the country it is collected (i.e. to do with throughput per session). Bigger sessions work best from this point of view, especially when we are under massive pressure to keep costs down and quality up.

Supply chain losses (waste) are around 3.5%, which are our lowest ever and must compare favourably with milk or other perishable supply chains?

Hope this helps.

..always with a knowledge that every pound we can save is one back at the NHS front line.

Well worth focusing on that imo. Some people might see that as a missed opportunity to make a profit - were it a profit-making venture. It is becoming more and more acceptable for health care provisions provided under the umbrella of the NHS to include an element of profit, indeed someone argued in favour of that very point on here recently.

Ben H thanks for the answer , I personally think advertising / marketing , venue charges should all be at done at cost .

I'd love to know how many people of this lovely parish donate blood regularly?

What chance we could do something as a survey one week? a Yes/No and reasons why not too?

Ben - thank you for the info.

trail_rat - Member

im not allowed to donate due to prolonged use of anti malarials and significant time spent in Bally's/the Waterfront in the last few years.

POSTED 3 DAYS AGO # REPORT-POST

I used to donate but was told not to bother coming back as they were getting tired picking me up off the floor afterwards (low BP/sugar levels or something). I'm A Rh+ so maybe they don't need as it as much??

How much is in a "unit"?

About an armful Cougar.

I use to give blood regularly but had to stop a few years ago because of medical reasons.

About an armful Cougar.

😆

I asked for that. The old ones are the, er, oldest. (-:

Interesting Ben cheers

I'd just like to add a massive personal thanks to all of that do donate blood and platelets. I've had dozens of each recently so thanks

Not quite up to what I've donated in blood or platelets just yet, but am likely to exceed it fairly soon.

If you don't and can and could make the time that'd be amazing! It really is important for so many

Thanks

I think the total taken at a donation is 470ml including the sample that gets tested .

I donate platelets every 3 weeks, don't know about the size of a blood unit, but the 3 units in the polly bag at the end never looks more than a pint to me.