December 15, 2025 • 10 mins
The NZ Blood Service is encouraging people to donate, saying the demand doesn’t stop.
Although the amount of hospital activity and the number of surgeries slow down over the holiday period, CEO Sam Cliffe says things like accidents, births, and long-term conditions are still prevalent.
She told Kerre Woodham that they try to over-collect in the two weeks up to Christmas and for a little bit after, as their stocks tend to get a little bit spikey in January.
Additional mobile donation stations have been set up across the country, so even if you’re not at home, there are options available.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerry Wood in morning's podcast from
News Talks, it'd.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Be a few questions and comments around who can give
and why we should go Same cluff New Zealand Blood
Sover CEO joins me. Now Hi sam Hi Kerry really
important time of the year to think about giving blood.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
It certainly is. I think every day is an important
day of the year, to be honest, But the demand
doesn't stop. We can't predict with any sort of accuracy.
We know that hospital activity does flow down over Christmas,
but accidents, unfortunately in long term conditions and cancers, etc.
And having babies doesn't. So what we try and do
is over collect in the two weeks up until Christmas
(00:47):
and a little bit afterwards, especially in January. A lot
of people think, oh, we'll do our donation before Christmas
and it's off the plate, But certainly in January that's
when our stocks tend to get a little bit by
year and we go okay, that's when we really would
encourage people. So we've laid on additional mobiles up and
down the country. So even if you're not at home,
even if you're not you know in your normal hometown,
have a look on the website or download our app
(01:09):
and it'll tell you where all our mobile collections are.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
That's interesting. I thought that demand peaked over Christmas, but
of course that's the ability to collect it that is
problematic rather than just the demand peaking.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
No, it's not. The demand peaks. A lot of our blood,
the fresh product that the red stuff, goes to people
having surgery, having elective surgery, and we know that that
does slow down over the Christmas New Year period when
surgeons take holidays, et cetera. But as I say, the
demand from an accident perspective, accidents tend to be up
unfortunately over the Christmas period, and long term treatments, so
(01:46):
people having cancer treatments, et cetera. Both don't stop.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
When it comes to where our blood en plasma comes from. KEI,
we's giving enough or do we have to bring it in.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
A bit of both. In terms of a fresh product
as we call it, that's mainly the red stuff, so
that's whole blood red. Else we're completely self sufficient. Key,
we are giving absolutely enough. Doesn't mean we don't need
more because demand. Although demand is not going up significantly
for those products, we keep pace with the population growth
in the aging population. That kind of thing. Demand for
(02:20):
plasma products is going up, and that's going up substantially
by almost up to ten percent per year. That's the
demand for those products. So we do struggle to keep
pace with that demand. We're not making everything that New
Zealanders need, so we do import a smaller amount of
products made from overseas collective plasma. We've been doing that
for a number of years and it's actually a hybrid
(02:41):
model that works quite well for us, but it is
a challenge. We are certainly always encouraging people to think,
if you can donate blood, chances are you can donate plasma.
And so we would certainly say if anybody who is
interested in becoming a blood donor or already is a
blood donor, talk to the service about potentially switching to plasma.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
In what do you use the plasma for.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
A whole range of things, a whole range of time.
Some plasma is used fresh and it's used as a
replacement for people with burns or a loss of loss
of blood. We don't want to replace it or with
red cells. You will replace it with plasma as well,
but it's quite more often than not used for people
with long term immuno deficiency, auto immune problems, so people
(03:24):
who are on long term medications to keep them well,
keep them safe, keep them free from illness.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And who can of blood has that has that changed
over the years.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
It has changed over the years. So I think the
big ones that people think about are men who have
sex with men. That's fairly well known. We're working very
hard to remove those restrictions and early part of next
year will make some more announcements. We've been obviously in
close communication with the community, but we'll be making some
(03:56):
more announcements about removing those restrictions, restrictions even further absolutely safe.
We've done incredible amounts of research and we're following the
rest of the world. Friends in that. The other big
group of people that always come to mind what we
could collectively called the back house, so people that lived
in the UK France Island in the nineteen eighties essentially
(04:19):
up until the mid nineteen nineties and all spent more
than six months there. We lifted that restriction last February,
not this year, just gone with the February before, so
it's been quite some time that that restriction has been lifted.
So there is no restriction on anybody nobody in the
mad Cow anymore.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I have a text here. I work at a business
with more than three hundred people working on site. It
was organized that New Zealand Blood come to our workspace,
set up and make themselves available for staff to give blood.
Fewer than ten percent of staff took up this opportunity.
I dare say they probably won't return. It doesn't get
much easier to help others. Yet people just don't bother
(04:56):
for reasons beyond my comprehension. What is the reluctance that
you might hear from people who say, Oh, I'd like to,
but I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
The like to but don't want to usually comes down
to I'm scared of needles. I haven't got time, and
I just want to say that the needles I get.
Lots of people are are scared of needles, but quite seriously,
our staff are excellently trained and incredibly kind and gentle,
and they will make the experience as painfree as possible,
(05:26):
And it really is just a little scratch when the
needle goes in. Some people really just don't like the
idea of sitting and watching their own blood drain. But
we've got lots of waves. We can distract you. Lots
of waves, we can distract you. The other one is time,
and obviously I get it. Everybody is busy. Everybody has
lots to do, especially at this time of year. It
seems to be race, race, race. But I was speaking
(05:46):
to one of our very regular plasma doners the other
day who said, come on, it's an hour of my
time once a fortnight. Everybody can do that. Everybody can
do that. We try and make it as easy as possible.
We know that not everybody can donate because of where
they are in the country, so we're spreading the ability
to donate plasma to other places. This week, we've seen
our first plasma donations in songer Ai. We had about
(06:08):
one hundred and eighty people who really wanted to donate plasma,
and they wouldn't have been able to do that before.
They'd only been able to donate whole blood. So we
make it as easy as we possibly can. But we
understand that your people's lives are busy. It's usually kind
seems to be the biggest excuse, if I could call
it that, but it really is. Our processes are getting
quicker and quicker all the time a whole blood donation.
(06:28):
If you do this regularly, it's not your first time.
Peop put me in and out within half an hour.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, I just had another text. I'm a newbie donor
carry I've done six plasma nodations.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
What I love is you get sent a message saying
we've used your plasma to save a life. My personality
type since the text loves getting that sort of acknowledgment ridiculous,
but we're also get to rebadge on the app. I
totally understand that motivation.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
It is a wonderful feeling, and I know that from
personal experience, you've kind of forgotten about the donation and
then a few days later it's like, thank you, you're
the blood's helped to save a life, and it's like, well,
I did something cool today. You know it's not every
day you can say that. So yes, I think. I think, Well,
humans are creatures of gratification. You want to be thanked,
(07:17):
and we want to thank every single one of our donors,
and if we can just give some that little bit
of joy in the day by saying, hey, today you
helped to save a life.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Absolutely. The other thing that I found silly. When I
was at blood donor is that I'd want my blood
to be perfect. So it was fine when I wasn't drinking.
I went for seven years without drinking, and I was
leading a fit and healthy life. But then once I
took up drinking again, I wanted my blood to be
perfect if it was going to go into somebody, especially
somebody who was vulnerable. So that reduced the amount of
(07:49):
times I could give because I was not quite as
I wasn't leading quite as healthy a life. I didn't
a drugs, but I just didn't think. I thought, if
you've been in a car accident or you've just had
major surgery, the last thing you need is my clapped
out blood going into your body.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
We don't say we want somebody to come in having drunk,
you know, in the twelve hours beforehand, but a few
drinks the night before really is not going to affect
your donation, and neither of smoking. Not that I would
encourage either either of those things, but it really doesn't.
Also goes through the most incredibly stringent screaming processes. If
(08:29):
it was clapped out, to use your words, carry, we
wouldn't be using it. And to be quite honest, we'd
be telling you that you know you've got a problem
with a health problem. But no, very few people will
fall into that category. I can assure you most lifestyle
just we can tell from looking at plasma if somebody
has a very fatty diet, for example, but it doesn't
it doesn't affect the quality of the product.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Right, perfect. So there's no excuses really for many people
as there.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
No, there aren't, but we do understand that people have
good reasons and valid reasons for not donating. What I
would say though, is only just under four percent of
the eligible potation in New Zealand donate. What a par
that's yep, that's on a par with the rest of
the world. A couple of nations are a bit better,
a couple of a bit lower, but average Australia, the UK,
(09:17):
it's about the same amount of people. There are a
lot more people out there who are eligible that don't donate.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Oh my goodness, Okay, right, I've made my appointment. I'm in.
I just used my app That has been much six
o'clock this evening. There we go.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Are you coming into websites?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
No, I'm in the North Shore. It'll be my first time.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Are you going to go to the new Constellation drive. Yes,
that's excellent. Yeah, that wonderful.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Okay, yes, I saw that they can do evening booking, so.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Most most of our bigger sites do do evenings up
to about seven eight o'clock.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, well that was the first time I had so
presumably that means you're booked until then, so that's good.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yes, yeah, our evening booking is very popular.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well, I'll see, I'll see the other blood is there
and it's time I got back on that horse, especially
now I'm fit unhealthy, even though that doesn't really matter much.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Appreciate, thank you, sir. You don't want people to be
affecting their health, either by their lifestyle or or by donating.
But I can assure you you won't be. You won't
be giving any anything remotely tainted to anybody. Good.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
That is good and reassuring to hear. Sam Cliff, who
is the New Zealand Blood Service CEO News Talk said
b it is twenty
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Five to 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 Kerry Wood in morning's podcast from
News Talks, it'd.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Be a few questions and comments around who can give
and why we should go Same cluff New Zealand Blood
Sover CEO joins me. Now Hi sam Hi Kerry really
important time of the year to think about giving blood.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
It certainly is. I think every day is an important
day of the year, to be honest, But the demand
doesn't stop. We can't predict with any sort of accuracy.
We know that hospital activity does flow down over Christmas,
but accidents, unfortunately in long term conditions and cancers, etc.
And having babies doesn't. So what we try and do
is over collect in the two weeks up until Christmas
(00:47):
and a little bit afterwards, especially in January. A lot
of people think, oh, we'll do our donation before Christmas
and it's off the plate, But certainly in January that's
when our stocks tend to get a little bit by
year and we go okay, that's when we really would
encourage people. So we've laid on additional mobiles up and
down the country. So even if you're not at home,
even if you're not you know in your normal hometown,
have a look on the website or download our app
(01:09):
and it'll tell you where all our mobile collections are.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
That's interesting. I thought that demand peaked over Christmas, but
of course that's the ability to collect it that is
problematic rather than just the demand peaking.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
No, it's not. The demand peaks. A lot of our blood,
the fresh product that the red stuff, goes to people
having surgery, having elective surgery, and we know that that
does slow down over the Christmas New Year period when
surgeons take holidays, et cetera. But as I say, the
demand from an accident perspective, accidents tend to be up
unfortunately over the Christmas period, and long term treatments, so
(01:46):
people having cancer treatments, et cetera. Both don't stop.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
When it comes to where our blood en plasma comes from. KEI,
we's giving enough or do we have to bring it in.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
A bit of both. In terms of a fresh product
as we call it, that's mainly the red stuff, so
that's whole blood red. Else we're completely self sufficient. Key,
we are giving absolutely enough. Doesn't mean we don't need
more because demand. Although demand is not going up significantly
for those products, we keep pace with the population growth
in the aging population. That kind of thing. Demand for
(02:20):
plasma products is going up, and that's going up substantially
by almost up to ten percent per year. That's the
demand for those products. So we do struggle to keep
pace with that demand. We're not making everything that New
Zealanders need, so we do import a smaller amount of
products made from overseas collective plasma. We've been doing that
for a number of years and it's actually a hybrid
(02:41):
model that works quite well for us, but it is
a challenge. We are certainly always encouraging people to think,
if you can donate blood, chances are you can donate plasma.
And so we would certainly say if anybody who is
interested in becoming a blood donor or already is a
blood donor, talk to the service about potentially switching to plasma.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
In what do you use the plasma for.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
A whole range of things, a whole range of time.
Some plasma is used fresh and it's used as a
replacement for people with burns or a loss of loss
of blood. We don't want to replace it or with
red cells. You will replace it with plasma as well,
but it's quite more often than not used for people
with long term immuno deficiency, auto immune problems, so people
(03:24):
who are on long term medications to keep them well,
keep them safe, keep them free from illness.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And who can of blood has that has that changed
over the years.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
It has changed over the years. So I think the
big ones that people think about are men who have
sex with men. That's fairly well known. We're working very
hard to remove those restrictions and early part of next
year will make some more announcements. We've been obviously in
close communication with the community, but we'll be making some
(03:56):
more announcements about removing those restrictions, restrictions even further absolutely safe.
We've done incredible amounts of research and we're following the
rest of the world. Friends in that. The other big
group of people that always come to mind what we
could collectively called the back house, so people that lived
in the UK France Island in the nineteen eighties essentially
(04:19):
up until the mid nineteen nineties and all spent more
than six months there. We lifted that restriction last February,
not this year, just gone with the February before, so
it's been quite some time that that restriction has been lifted.
So there is no restriction on anybody nobody in the
mad Cow anymore.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I have a text here. I work at a business
with more than three hundred people working on site. It
was organized that New Zealand Blood come to our workspace,
set up and make themselves available for staff to give blood.
Fewer than ten percent of staff took up this opportunity.
I dare say they probably won't return. It doesn't get
much easier to help others. Yet people just don't bother
(04:56):
for reasons beyond my comprehension. What is the reluctance that
you might hear from people who say, Oh, I'd like to,
but I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
The like to but don't want to usually comes down
to I'm scared of needles. I haven't got time, and
I just want to say that the needles I get.
Lots of people are are scared of needles, but quite seriously,
our staff are excellently trained and incredibly kind and gentle,
and they will make the experience as painfree as possible,
(05:26):
And it really is just a little scratch when the
needle goes in. Some people really just don't like the
idea of sitting and watching their own blood drain. But
we've got lots of waves. We can distract you. Lots
of waves, we can distract you. The other one is time,
and obviously I get it. Everybody is busy. Everybody has
lots to do, especially at this time of year. It
seems to be race, race, race. But I was speaking
(05:46):
to one of our very regular plasma doners the other
day who said, come on, it's an hour of my
time once a fortnight. Everybody can do that. Everybody can
do that. We try and make it as easy as possible.
We know that not everybody can donate because of where
they are in the country, so we're spreading the ability
to donate plasma to other places. This week, we've seen
our first plasma donations in songer Ai. We had about
(06:08):
one hundred and eighty people who really wanted to donate plasma,
and they wouldn't have been able to do that before.
They'd only been able to donate whole blood. So we
make it as easy as we possibly can. But we
understand that your people's lives are busy. It's usually kind
seems to be the biggest excuse, if I could call
it that, but it really is. Our processes are getting
quicker and quicker all the time a whole blood donation.
(06:28):
If you do this regularly, it's not your first time.
Peop put me in and out within half an hour.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, I just had another text. I'm a newbie donor
carry I've done six plasma nodations.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
What I love is you get sent a message saying
we've used your plasma to save a life. My personality
type since the text loves getting that sort of acknowledgment ridiculous,
but we're also get to rebadge on the app. I
totally understand that motivation.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
It is a wonderful feeling, and I know that from
personal experience, you've kind of forgotten about the donation and
then a few days later it's like, thank you, you're
the blood's helped to save a life, and it's like, well,
I did something cool today. You know it's not every
day you can say that. So yes, I think. I think, Well,
humans are creatures of gratification. You want to be thanked,
(07:17):
and we want to thank every single one of our donors,
and if we can just give some that little bit
of joy in the day by saying, hey, today you
helped to save a life.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Absolutely. The other thing that I found silly. When I
was at blood donor is that I'd want my blood
to be perfect. So it was fine when I wasn't drinking.
I went for seven years without drinking, and I was
leading a fit and healthy life. But then once I
took up drinking again, I wanted my blood to be
perfect if it was going to go into somebody, especially
somebody who was vulnerable. So that reduced the amount of
(07:49):
times I could give because I was not quite as
I wasn't leading quite as healthy a life. I didn't
a drugs, but I just didn't think. I thought, if
you've been in a car accident or you've just had
major surgery, the last thing you need is my clapped
out blood going into your body.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
We don't say we want somebody to come in having drunk,
you know, in the twelve hours beforehand, but a few
drinks the night before really is not going to affect
your donation, and neither of smoking. Not that I would
encourage either either of those things, but it really doesn't.
Also goes through the most incredibly stringent screaming processes. If
(08:29):
it was clapped out, to use your words, carry, we
wouldn't be using it. And to be quite honest, we'd
be telling you that you know you've got a problem
with a health problem. But no, very few people will
fall into that category. I can assure you most lifestyle
just we can tell from looking at plasma if somebody
has a very fatty diet, for example, but it doesn't
it doesn't affect the quality of the product.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Right, perfect. So there's no excuses really for many people
as there.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
No, there aren't, but we do understand that people have
good reasons and valid reasons for not donating. What I
would say though, is only just under four percent of
the eligible potation in New Zealand donate. What a par
that's yep, that's on a par with the rest of
the world. A couple of nations are a bit better,
a couple of a bit lower, but average Australia, the UK,
(09:17):
it's about the same amount of people. There are a
lot more people out there who are eligible that don't donate.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Oh my goodness, Okay, right, I've made my appointment. I'm in.
I just used my app That has been much six
o'clock this evening. There we go.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Are you coming into websites?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
No, I'm in the North Shore. It'll be my first time.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Are you going to go to the new Constellation drive. Yes,
that's excellent. Yeah, that wonderful.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Okay, yes, I saw that they can do evening booking, so.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Most most of our bigger sites do do evenings up
to about seven eight o'clock.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, well that was the first time I had so
presumably that means you're booked until then, so that's good.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yes, yeah, our evening booking is very popular.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well, I'll see, I'll see the other blood is there
and it's time I got back on that horse, especially
now I'm fit unhealthy, even though that doesn't really matter much.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Appreciate, thank you, sir. You don't want people to be
affecting their health, either by their lifestyle or or by donating.
But I can assure you you won't be. You won't
be giving any anything remotely tainted to anybody. Good.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
That is good and reassuring to hear. Sam Cliff, who
is the New Zealand Blood Service CEO News Talk said
b it is twenty
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Five to 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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