Lifeline Newsletter - August Edition

Our staff love meeting, greeting and taking care of you when you visit our centres to donate blood or plasma.

But did you know that behind the scenes we also have around 250 dedicated staff who work in our laboratories and in hospitals, or support the people who do? They’re the ones who take care of your precious donation once you leave our donor centres and their work ensures we supply only safe, quality blood and blood products. That’s why we’re celebrating them during the annual Labs are Vital week later this month (August 21-25). Our Team Leaders head up teams of Medical Laboratory Scientists and Medical Laboratory Technicians across three manufacturing sites and six blood banks.

They carry out specialised and cutting edge work, such as:

• Testing every donation we receive to make sure its clear of infections and safe to use.
• Processing the blood and plasma we collect into more than 20 different life-improving or life-saving products (e.g. platelets, plasma and red blood cells) for use in patients.
• Processing and storing stem cells that are used for life-saving procedures that support people with cancer.
• Processing donated hearts so that they can be used for life-saving procedures like heart valve replacements at Starship Children’s Hospital.
• Cross-matching donated organs to ensure they are compatible with the intended recipients.
• Processing and storing donated tissue, such as bone and skin.

In the past 12 months, our lab staff have:

• Carried out more than 2 million tests on donated blood and plasma
• Processed more than 200,000 units of plasma
• Issued 247,000cm² of skin, and
• Received 840 and issued 644 bone donations

Plus so much more! So, next time you visit one of our donor centres, rest assured that your donation will be in safe hands after you depart!

We look forward to seeing you again soon!