Blood donor clinic not coming back to Prince George

Prince George residents hoping Canadian Blood Services will reopen a local blood donation centre are out of luck.

The city has been without a blood donor clinic for the past eight years, since the doors closed permanently on the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) donor centre on Westwood Drive and the national non-profit organization has no plans to return to Prince George.

The $1,000 daily cost of flying collected blood to Vancouver and maintaining a staff of 13 part-time and four casual workers prompted the closure of the Prince George centre, which cost about a $1 million each year to operate on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturday every fourth week. Two other centres in the Maritimes and 16 mobile clinics were also shut down that year to shave $2.9 million in annual costs.

Last December, Prince George was unable to respond to a public plea for help after the national supply dropped 35 per cent due to unusually cold weather across the country, combined with the fallout from the pandemic, which drove 31,000 regular donors away from clinics.

Gayle Boyer, Canadian Blood Services associate director for donor relations for B.C., said despite the Prince George centre closure, there is no impact on hospitals in northern B.C. because there are sufficient supplies available, sent from other blood collection locations in the province.

“Patients in the community continue to receive the blood and blood products that they need at the local hospital,” said Boyer.

The blood comes from permanent centres in Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna and from a mobile clinic that visits every fourth week in Kamloops, the closest collection point to Prince George.

While blood is no longer collected in Prince George, Boyer is encouraging people to donate stem cells to the national registry and also sign up for the  province's tissue/organ donation program.

“The other piece of that is just making sure your family is aware of your wishes, so that they can act on those wishes if they need to,” said Boyer.

Stem cells can potentially be used to develop into many different types of cells used to repair damaged tissue in the body. Donors who sign up for the stem cell registry must be between 17 and 35 years old and can remain in the national registry until they are 60. Donors go to the hospital for stem cell extraction, which is obtained either from blood that is later returned to the body or from bone marrow taken from the hip.

CBS also has a Partners for Life community engagement program for volunteers all over the province to fundraise and help promote its donor services.