The Irish Blood Transfusion Board

dubadub

In light of recent articles in the press/media concerning the IBTB that our blood products are being sold to pharmaceuticals for top prices. It is not time we charged a fee for our Irish blood. Too many Donations given freely.

Gav1n

dubadub wrote:

In light of recent articles in the press/media concerning the IBTB that our blood products are being sold to pharmaceuticals for top prices. It is not time we charged a fee for our Irish blood. Too many Donations given freely.

Yeah, I've been giving blood on and off for about two years. My brother has been doing been so for about 15 years. It's serious pain in the ass knowing now, that our donations have not been going towards helping someone that needed it, but rather linning some ass bandit's pockets in IBTB. :mad:

blondie83

I have been writing an essay/ preparing a presentation for the past few days, and as such have been living in my own little bubble of lasers emerging periodically only to eat and sleep. Consequently I haven't been watching/reading the news - what happenned with the IBTS? I'm a donor myself so what I've read in the previous post about "pockets being lined" disturbs me slightly

Civilian_Target

Well, I would image that the reason they sell blood to pharmaceutical companies is to kepe the price of blood to be supplied to hospitals down. It makes sense, if you have to sell a few pints at a premium to make the health service run more smoothly, so be it.

Basicly, you'll probably find that this sort of thing is keeping your VHI bill down...

Capt'n Midnight

now that we have a celtic tiger :rolleyes:
only people whose blood you would not like to have would sell it
or so the argument would go

had jaundice when young so can't donate

maybe they should charge people to donate ?
I'm sure a lot of women would be trilled at being able to loose a lb in weight without having to diet - guaranteed or your money back

Victor

Why is this in the Dublin Forum?

dubadub wrote:

In light of recent articles in the press/media concerning the IBTB

I haven't seen any, linkies?

dubadub wrote:

that our blood products are being sold to pharmaceuticals

What would you do with excess supplies or those near the end of their shelf-lives?

dubadub wrote:

top prices

Would you prefer it sold at lower prices?

dubadub wrote:

It is not time we charged a fee for our Irish blood.

How much? Will homeless people able to use this money to fund their alcohol problems?

dubadub wrote:

Too many Donations given freely.

This would appear to misunderstand the system. What would you otherwise do with your blood?

Gav1n wrote:

that our donations have not been going towards helping someone that needed it

So what do you think the pharma companies would do with the blood? Make medicines by any chance? Doesn't that ultimately help someone?

Gav1n wrote:

linning some ... pockets in IBTB.

Oh? Whose pockets? is the IBTB paying large dividends now?

Gav1n wrote:

It's serious pain in the ass knowing now

Really, how come? Is that where your brain is located?

Gav1n wrote:

ass bandit's

Hardly appropriate.

killbillie

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

now that we have a celtic tiger :rolleyes:
only people whose blood you would not like to have would sell it
or so the argument would go

had jaundice when young so can't donate

maybe they should charge people to donate ?
I'm sure a lot of women would be trilled at being able to loose a lb in weight without having to diet - guaranteed or your money back

Taken from IBTS website
Never give blood if:
You have had jaundice of uncertain cause after the age of 13 years

You might still be able to give blood!

Syth

You also can't give blood if you had acupuncture within the last year. It's becuase you're getting a needle stuck into you by someone not medically qualified.

tnt1

have a friend who recently was in an accident and received donated during an operation.i was wondering what sort of testing the irish blood board do? i read on their website that they check for hep B ,HIV , but do they check for ALL other STD'S ,herpes etc.... i would presume they do test for these,but i was just wondering when i read about the scandals of the blood board http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0112/blood.html

Moby

If they were to pay a fee for donation blood you would get every drunk ,druggie, and tramp queing to donate for the wrong reasons just to get money for their kicks, I am happy to donate my blood for the bottle of stout and no more.

Victor

Oh, the ironing is strong with this one. /me runs off to start a thread on the evils of alcohol.

Capt'n Midnight

tnt1 wrote:

have a friend who recently was in an accident and received donated during an operation.i was wondering what sort of testing the irish blood board do? i read on their website that they check for hep B ,HIV , but do they check for ALL other STD'S ,herpes etc.... i would presume they do test for these,but i was just wondering when i read about the scandals of the blood board http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0112/blood.html

AFAIK all blood is heat treated just in case.

Seth Brundle

I used to donate blood every three months for years and now donate platlets every month. Irish supplies are low and I believe that the blood sold was as Victor mentioned, towards the end of its shelf life. Some of the blood was out of date also. AFAIK IBTS recieved about £80k for this. Did this money help go towards an underfunded blood bank? I don't know.
I believe that the stringent controls that the IBTS place on donors is appropriate. They bring out new rules as soon as they fear something could affect a patient.
The blood is tested for transmittable diseases and I know they check my blood before I donate platlets for white cells. I presume they do this with blood also.
I know my platlets are used properly. Apparently mine help young babies (including those unborn) and in the past I also helped some woman who was going through chaemo. However, if I found out that some of it was given or sold to the private sector, I would not be concerned. I would like to assume that it would be used to develop products that will save lives, thus my blood would be going to good use!
I think, aside from this being in the wrong forum, that this thread could deter many people from donating which in the long term is not beneficial to society. In my years attending the blood bank I have found them to be excellent and would not consider stopping despite a scandal like this!

newgrange

Their 'controls' seem discriminatory to me.

You are a male who has ever had anal or oral sex with another male, even if a condom or other form of protection was used

What about females? Do they think women do not have unprotected anal and oral sex with men?

And for men even just the once and protected disbars them?
Or do they mean 'the gay boys', and are just not saying it?

They won't be getting any of my blood while they have this particular 'control', apart entirely from the fact that they put a friend of mine (a regular donor) through four months of hell a few years ago with a 'scare' involving Hep. and HIV.

Easygainer

The story was blown out of proportion. The blood was near the end of its shelf life, so they made money which funds all their advertising campaigns - it's not free to have a billboard up everywhere you know...

Then there are the obvious problems with paying for blood - anyone see the parody in the Simpsons - "$12 and a free cookie - wow!"

Scarinae

I agree that it would be a really bad idea to pay people for donating blood, cos it would encourage junkies to sell blood to feed their habits, among other things. Basically, people would be donating blood for the wrong reasons. I believe very strongly that if you are able, you should donate blood - I am a donor, and have never had any problem with the staff in there. They are very courteous, and you get free food afterwards

Seth Brundle

I agree about not paying but believe that it could be a good idea to offer a discount off our health insurance costs for each donation!

Scarinae

The free food is enough for me, but yeah a discount on health insurance would be cool

Stark

newgrange wrote:

Their 'controls' seem discriminatory to me.

You are a male who has ever had anal or oral sex with another male, even if a condom or other form of protection was used

What about females? Do they think women do not have unprotected anal and oral sex with men?

And for men even just the once and protected disbars them?
Or do they mean 'the gay boys', and are just not saying it?

They won't be getting any of my blood while they have this particular 'control', apart entirely from the fact that they put a friend of mine (a regular donor) through four months of hell a few years ago with a 'scare' involving Hep. and HIV.

Yeah, UCC LGB society organized protests and a debate about this before. We won the debate hands down but it didn't shift their attitudes.

Scarinae

Stark wrote:

Yeah, UCC LGB society organized protests and a debate about this before. We won the debate hands down but it didn't shift their attitudes.

Who was the debate against? I mean, what were their reasons for saying no? I think it's a bit ridiculous personally that they'd just tar all homosexuals with the same brush, especially since straight people get AIDS as well

Trick Pie

I'll never be able to give blood in this country anyhow. I'd give everyone mad cow disease. My plan is foiled.

Wait... people get free food?! Aw, bugger.