Blood: Donors
(asked on 14th February 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2019 to Question 216936, for what reason NHS Blood and Transplant has not conducted paid for advertising to inform men who have sex with men of changes to blood donation rules.
During 2017/18, NHS Blood and Transplant spent £3.14 million on paid media to encourage people to donate blood. All marketing materials promote the ‘eligibility criteria tool’ which is found on the Give Blood website at the following link:
The ‘eligibility criteria tool’ lists the deferral times for a range of scenarios such as travel, medical conditions, tattoos and includes information for men who have sex with men and wish to donate blood. NHS Blood and Transplant is committed to exploring whether a more individualised approach to risk assessment could be taken to donor selection and expects to report on its findings regarding new evidence and new technologies for assessing risk by 2020. NHS Blood and Transplant has and will continue to engage with key stakeholders such as the Terrence Higgins Trust, the National Aids Trust and Stonewall about changes to eligibility criteria.