Blood: Donors

(asked on 9th December 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the closures of all Plasma Donation Facilities in Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council on (a) unemployment and (b) regional health disparities.


Answered by
Maria Caulfield Portrait
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This question was answered on 14th December 2021

The Department, NHS Blood and Transplant and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working to create a long-term domestic supply of plasma in England, which can be used to manufacture immunoglobulins.

The Government agreed temporary funding for plasma donation using part of the infrastructure originally established for the COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Programme. In light of the important wider opportunity to develop the supply of immunoglobulins in the United Kingdom, the Government has now directed NHS Blood and Transplant to retain three of its plasma donation centres on a permanent basis. This is based on balancing affordability with the benefits of sustaining significant domestic plasma supply.

NHS Blood and Transplant will continue to collect plasma at Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham and from recovered plasma from whole blood donations collected across England. NHS Blood and Transplant is supporting the affected staff at its Barnsley centre to find alternative employment.

Reticulating Splines