August 19, 2024 • 11 mins
The New Zealand Blood Service is calling out for desperately needed plasma.
The demand for so called 'liquid gold' grows by 10 percent each year, with supply not keeping up.
Based on the demand, they’ll need at least 150 more people to start donating regularly.
Transfusion Medicine Specialist Richard Charlewood told Francesca Rudkin the problem is that they’re reliant on other countries.
He said that it’s an American export business, and so when there’s a drop in donations—like there was during Covid— it’s an America-first policy, so we’re at risk by not being self-sufficient.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry wood of morning's podcast from
News Talk sed B.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
As I mentioned earlier in the show, the New Zealand
Blood Service is calling out desperately for plasma. New Zealand
Blood says they're really struggling to keep pace with the
demand for the so called liquid gold. The need for
plasma grows by ten percent each year, so over the
next year we'll need about one hundred and fifty more
people to start donating regularly. Transfusion medicine specialist Richard Charliewood
(00:38):
joins me. Now, good morning, Richard.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good morning Francesca.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Now I have a confession to make, and I have
been shamed by my producer for this, but I have
never donated blood or plasma. I'd like to apologize for that.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
That's okay, there's an easy way for you to change
that exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So I'm wondering if you could just tell me if
there are other people out there like myself who haven't
done it, what does it involve?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Okay, So it's a fairly straightforward process. There's a medical
and social health question there that you fill in when
you arrive. There's an interview with a nurse, there's a
tiny little fingerprick on one of your fingers, just to
check your hemid lobin level to make sure that it's
(01:25):
safe for you to donate. And then you go and
sit in a comfy chair and that's when the donation starts.
It's a needle slides into your arm, and yeah, you
just sit there until it's done. You can neither donate
whole blood, the red stuff, which takes about five to
(01:46):
ten minutes on the chair, or you can donate plasma,
which is the clear yellow liquid that all the cells
in your blood float around in. That takes a bit
longer because the machine you've connected to a machine that
takes out a little bit of the blood, separates into
(02:06):
the cells, and the plasma keeps the plasma returns all
the cells to you and then just keeps doing that
until we've got enough enough plasma. And that volume of
plasma is based on your height and weight, so it's
all customized to make sure that you're kept safe.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So that might take an hour to do or so, Richard.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So for plasma on the machine, you'd be probably about
forty minutes if you take into account the questionnaire, the interview,
the donation itself, and then sitting having a cup of
tea and biscuits afterwards. Yeah, probably an hour to an
hour and a half.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, I think you've probably explained to me why plasma
is nicknamed liquid gold. Is it purely the color or
is it also just how amazing it is?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Well, there's several reasons. So, yes, it is a clear
yellow color, so there's the golden element there. It's also
golden in that you can make so many different things
from it. So we take that plasma, we ship it
to CSL Bearing in Melbourne and they separate it out
into different protein types and we can use all of
(03:19):
those or a good number of those protein types as
medicines back here in New Zealand's albumin from Laban's factor
stuff for reversing warfare in globulin concentrates, various other plotting
factors and so on. So you can treat a lot
(03:42):
of different patients with it. So that's another reason that
it's a it's a golden product. The last reason is
also that unfortunately doing all of that is a really
expensive process, and the product that we're most looking for
is the antibody concentrate. And by the time all the
(04:03):
various costs have been factored in. That works out that
antibody concentrates cost more per gram than liquid than gold itself,
so it's an expensive product. That's just an unfortunate fact
of reality. It does mean that the hospitals are very
cautious about using it, so they're not wasting it because
(04:26):
they know it's expensive. But they're trying not to waste
any of our blood donations, but they are particularly careful
about that, Richard.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
If the shortage continues, what does this mean for our
blood service? Well, we have to import plasma from overseas?
Is that what would happen?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
We're already we're already importing antibody concentrates, so effectively, plasma
is being brought in by CSL bearing on our behalf
and is being made into antibody concentrates and we're providing
those to patients. We're about seventy five percent self sufficient
(05:04):
for antibody traits. We used to be one hundred percent,
but we're struggling to match the increasing need from patients
and hospitals for the antibody concentrates. So yeah, the problem
then is that we're reliant on other countries, and as
(05:24):
we know during COVID when they had a drop in
blood donations or plasma donations. It will be and it
is an American export business, so it'll be in America
first policy, and we're at risk by not being self sufficient.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
How are our bloodstocks, Richard, do you need more blood donors?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
So our fresh components we largely do well. On our
red cells and platelets, we do well. We've got fantastic
donors who's supporting that. Occasionally you'll get the odd patient
who'll use a lot more than we were casting, and
then there'll be a special appeal that we'll you know,
(06:10):
could people with a certain blood group donate. That's because
we don't want to over collect stock and have it
go to waste. That would be terrible. So it's always
a delicate balance between collecting just enough but not too much,
not too little, so fresh stuff. We're good with the
(06:31):
donors that we've currently got, and we're very grateful to them.
The plasma is our pain point at the moment, just
trying to meet the hospital's needs for that, Richard.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I just have a quick couple of questions here actually
from listeners, one saying the age that you can what
age can you keep giving this person? Recently tried to
sign up but was told that they were too old
at seventy one, and they're curious to know why.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
So once you've passed your seventy first birthday, then we
get a bit nervous because we aren't taking off. They're
not insignificant amount of plasma blood from somebody, and we
don't want the donor having a heart attack or something
like that. While just because they're doing something out of
(07:25):
the kindness of their heart, we do have to protect
the donors. If you've already been donating and you've kind
of proved that your coronary arteries can handle it, then
you can carry on donating up to your eighty first birthday.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Wonderful And Richard somebody else said, what about if you're
a small person. I did it once at age eighteen
and felt very ill. Later read they don't take from
small framed people. Is that true?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
So yeah, so when you're young, you do have a
tendency to faint more and feel bad more. So we
do have extra heighth to wait criteria for people who
are under twenty five. Once you pass twenty five, that
becomes much less of a problem for plasma. We do
(08:16):
have additional heightened weight criteria. I mentioned you know how
we adjust the volume that we collect based on your
height and weight. All of those things are on our
website if people want to go and have a look
and check their eligibility and heightened weight criteria there.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And Richard, this is well sorry, I was just going
to have one more question since I've got you. Saves
a bit of time. Somebody's also said can I donate
if I'm not sure of my blood type? I was
born in the UK too, and I remember there was
a restriction on people from the UK.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So two things there, So absolutely come and donate. We
don't expect people to know their blood type. We've got
a very fancy lab that does all that testing. Yeah,
and people who who were in the UK between nineteen
eighty and ninety ninety six are all welcome back, myself included.
(09:10):
So yes, you can donate again if you've been in
the UK then, or if you were born in the UK.
The evidence from that has shown that the whole mad
Cow thing didn't turn out to be as big a
disaster as we were expecting, and that that has kind
of faded away now. So the risks for patients who,
(09:33):
of course don't have a choice. The risk of patients
are now vanishingly small for mad cow disease, so we
think it's safe for people to donate again.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Now fantastic And look just finally for me, Richard, if
you do become a donor, how often do you would
you like people to donate? Just trying to get a
feed on o.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Q my vampire tendencies. So if you're donating holdlers, you
can donate it every three months. If you donat in plasma,
you can donate every two weeks. Because most of the
plasma donation is actually water, so you replenish that very quickly.
(10:18):
And we do encourage people who do want to donate
just to make sure that you're quite well hydrated before
you come in. Have some extra glasses of water the
day before and on the day of the donation, because yes,
mostly water were taking off, but the proteins, the liquid gold,
is what we're after.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Richard, thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it.
Transfusion medicine specialist Richard Charlie Wood there talking us through
it right. No reason why I can't get off my
butt and go and do that. So I will go
and do that. And Helen will be very pleased with me.
If I do to find a location to donate or
book an appointment, download the New Zealand Blood app visit
(11:01):
inzidblood dot co dot inz or call eight hundred Give blood.
So that's eight hundred give blood. I'll see you there.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
For more from Kerry Wooden Mornings, listen live to News
Talks a B from nine am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the carry wood of morning's podcast from
News Talk sed B.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
As I mentioned earlier in the show, the New Zealand
Blood Service is calling out desperately for plasma. New Zealand
Blood says they're really struggling to keep pace with the
demand for the so called liquid gold. The need for
plasma grows by ten percent each year, so over the
next year we'll need about one hundred and fifty more
people to start donating regularly. Transfusion medicine specialist Richard Charliewood
(00:38):
joins me. Now, good morning, Richard.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good morning Francesca.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Now I have a confession to make, and I have
been shamed by my producer for this, but I have
never donated blood or plasma. I'd like to apologize for that.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
That's okay, there's an easy way for you to change
that exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So I'm wondering if you could just tell me if
there are other people out there like myself who haven't
done it, what does it involve?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Okay, So it's a fairly straightforward process. There's a medical
and social health question there that you fill in when
you arrive. There's an interview with a nurse, there's a
tiny little fingerprick on one of your fingers, just to
check your hemid lobin level to make sure that it's
(01:25):
safe for you to donate. And then you go and
sit in a comfy chair and that's when the donation starts.
It's a needle slides into your arm, and yeah, you
just sit there until it's done. You can neither donate
whole blood, the red stuff, which takes about five to
(01:46):
ten minutes on the chair, or you can donate plasma,
which is the clear yellow liquid that all the cells
in your blood float around in. That takes a bit
longer because the machine you've connected to a machine that
takes out a little bit of the blood, separates into
(02:06):
the cells, and the plasma keeps the plasma returns all
the cells to you and then just keeps doing that
until we've got enough enough plasma. And that volume of
plasma is based on your height and weight, so it's
all customized to make sure that you're kept safe.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So that might take an hour to do or so, Richard.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So for plasma on the machine, you'd be probably about
forty minutes if you take into account the questionnaire, the interview,
the donation itself, and then sitting having a cup of
tea and biscuits afterwards. Yeah, probably an hour to an
hour and a half.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, I think you've probably explained to me why plasma
is nicknamed liquid gold. Is it purely the color or
is it also just how amazing it is?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Well, there's several reasons. So, yes, it is a clear
yellow color, so there's the golden element there. It's also
golden in that you can make so many different things
from it. So we take that plasma, we ship it
to CSL Bearing in Melbourne and they separate it out
into different protein types and we can use all of
(03:19):
those or a good number of those protein types as
medicines back here in New Zealand's albumin from Laban's factor
stuff for reversing warfare in globulin concentrates, various other plotting
factors and so on. So you can treat a lot
(03:42):
of different patients with it. So that's another reason that
it's a it's a golden product. The last reason is
also that unfortunately doing all of that is a really
expensive process, and the product that we're most looking for
is the antibody concentrate. And by the time all the
(04:03):
various costs have been factored in. That works out that
antibody concentrates cost more per gram than liquid than gold itself,
so it's an expensive product. That's just an unfortunate fact
of reality. It does mean that the hospitals are very
cautious about using it, so they're not wasting it because
(04:26):
they know it's expensive. But they're trying not to waste
any of our blood donations, but they are particularly careful
about that, Richard.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
If the shortage continues, what does this mean for our
blood service? Well, we have to import plasma from overseas?
Is that what would happen?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
We're already we're already importing antibody concentrates, so effectively, plasma
is being brought in by CSL bearing on our behalf
and is being made into antibody concentrates and we're providing
those to patients. We're about seventy five percent self sufficient
(05:04):
for antibody traits. We used to be one hundred percent,
but we're struggling to match the increasing need from patients
and hospitals for the antibody concentrates. So yeah, the problem
then is that we're reliant on other countries, and as
(05:24):
we know during COVID when they had a drop in
blood donations or plasma donations. It will be and it
is an American export business, so it'll be in America
first policy, and we're at risk by not being self sufficient.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
How are our bloodstocks, Richard, do you need more blood donors?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
So our fresh components we largely do well. On our
red cells and platelets, we do well. We've got fantastic
donors who's supporting that. Occasionally you'll get the odd patient
who'll use a lot more than we were casting, and
then there'll be a special appeal that we'll you know,
(06:10):
could people with a certain blood group donate. That's because
we don't want to over collect stock and have it
go to waste. That would be terrible. So it's always
a delicate balance between collecting just enough but not too much,
not too little, so fresh stuff. We're good with the
(06:31):
donors that we've currently got, and we're very grateful to them.
The plasma is our pain point at the moment, just
trying to meet the hospital's needs for that, Richard.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I just have a quick couple of questions here actually
from listeners, one saying the age that you can what
age can you keep giving this person? Recently tried to
sign up but was told that they were too old
at seventy one, and they're curious to know why.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
So once you've passed your seventy first birthday, then we
get a bit nervous because we aren't taking off. They're
not insignificant amount of plasma blood from somebody, and we
don't want the donor having a heart attack or something
like that. While just because they're doing something out of
(07:25):
the kindness of their heart, we do have to protect
the donors. If you've already been donating and you've kind
of proved that your coronary arteries can handle it, then
you can carry on donating up to your eighty first birthday.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Wonderful And Richard somebody else said, what about if you're
a small person. I did it once at age eighteen
and felt very ill. Later read they don't take from
small framed people. Is that true?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
So yeah, so when you're young, you do have a
tendency to faint more and feel bad more. So we
do have extra heighth to wait criteria for people who
are under twenty five. Once you pass twenty five, that
becomes much less of a problem for plasma. We do
(08:16):
have additional heightened weight criteria. I mentioned you know how
we adjust the volume that we collect based on your
height and weight. All of those things are on our
website if people want to go and have a look
and check their eligibility and heightened weight criteria there.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And Richard, this is well sorry, I was just going
to have one more question since I've got you. Saves
a bit of time. Somebody's also said can I donate
if I'm not sure of my blood type? I was
born in the UK too, and I remember there was
a restriction on people from the UK.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So two things there, So absolutely come and donate. We
don't expect people to know their blood type. We've got
a very fancy lab that does all that testing. Yeah,
and people who who were in the UK between nineteen
eighty and ninety ninety six are all welcome back, myself included.
(09:10):
So yes, you can donate again if you've been in
the UK then, or if you were born in the UK.
The evidence from that has shown that the whole mad
Cow thing didn't turn out to be as big a
disaster as we were expecting, and that that has kind
of faded away now. So the risks for patients who,
(09:33):
of course don't have a choice. The risk of patients
are now vanishingly small for mad cow disease, so we
think it's safe for people to donate again.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Now fantastic And look just finally for me, Richard, if
you do become a donor, how often do you would
you like people to donate? Just trying to get a
feed on o.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Q my vampire tendencies. So if you're donating holdlers, you
can donate it every three months. If you donat in plasma,
you can donate every two weeks. Because most of the
plasma donation is actually water, so you replenish that very quickly.
(10:18):
And we do encourage people who do want to donate
just to make sure that you're quite well hydrated before
you come in. Have some extra glasses of water the
day before and on the day of the donation, because yes,
mostly water were taking off, but the proteins, the liquid gold,
is what we're after.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Richard, thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it.
Transfusion medicine specialist Richard Charlie Wood there talking us through
it right. No reason why I can't get off my
butt and go and do that. So I will go
and do that. And Helen will be very pleased with me.
If I do to find a location to donate or
book an appointment, download the New Zealand Blood app visit
(11:01):
inzidblood dot co dot inz or call eight hundred Give blood.
So that's eight hundred give blood. I'll see you there.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
For more from Kerry Wooden Mornings, listen live to News
Talks a B from nine am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio
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