25,000 demand Cameron stops the 'BloodMoney'
10 March 2011
Unite's campaign to stop the privatisation of the NHS Blood
Service has received huge public support which is still growing. In
under a week, the union's petition demanding that David Cameron
stops the blood money was signed by 25,000 people (see link in
notes to editors).
The petition was launched last Friday (4 March) and the Twitter
campaign #bloodmoney began yesterday 9 March. In just one day
almost 10,000 signed up.
On 16 February the Health Service Journal learned that the
Department of Health's commercial directorate held talks with
private providers about running parts of the NHS Blood and
Transplant service. Capita and DHL are understood to be interested
in taking over parts of the service (see link notes to
editors).
The campaign has struck a chord with the general public who have
been signing up at record speed for a Unite petition. The public is
right to be concerned, a study conducted in New Zealand found that
there was opposition to profit being made from blood, with 52 per
cent of donors unlikely to continue donating if this occurred (see
link in notes to editors).
Unite assistant general secretary, Jennie Bremner, said: "In
under a week 25,000 people have signed the petition opposing
privatisation of the NHS Blood Service . Yesterday alone 7,000
people signed the petition and we expect the numbers of people
joining our campaign to grow. Men and women, young and old alike,
are really angry about the government's plans.
"Donors help save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people
every year including cancer patients, accident victims and women
giving birth who develop complications. Anyone who can see the
clear moral contradiction in giving blood freely to help others for
it then to be used for profit by the private sector should get
behind Unite's campaign to urge David Cameron to stop the blood
money.
"The message is getting louder by the hour as more people join
the campaign - our blood is not for sale."
The NHS Blood and Transplant Service is a success story. Its
specialist nurses collect blood from volunteer donors and then the
service ensures it reaches the patients that need it.
It also co-ordinates the 24-hour organ matching and allocation
service which arranges the much needed organ transplant
service.
And it is not the case that the NHS Blood and Transplant Service
is ‘ineffective’ or ‘inefficient’. Its last annual report showed
the service: “met more than 99.9 per cent of all product requests”
and it has “implemented efficiencies which helped to reduce the
cost of a unit of red cells from £140 to £130” – this is a fall in
cost of over 7per cent.
The NHS Blood and Transplant Service had undertaken an increase
in the number of organ donations; the total number of organ
transplants carried out in the period April 2009 to March 2010 was
the highest ever seen.
ENDS
Contact:Ciaran Naidoo on 07768 931 315
Notes to editors:
