While blood donations continue to decline in Île-de-France, the director of the French Blood Establishment (EFS) is trying to send a simple but important message: “Giving blood is an act of citizenship. daily. “
At what level are the blood reserves in Paris and its region today?
STÉPHANE NOËL. The Paris region is the only one that is not self-sufficient. It depends up to 45% of the province. This dependence does not date from today. It is due to many peculiarities. The first is a very powerful and important care offer, and therefore care for the most complex patients.
Why insist this year on the importance of donation?
We were in a very, very critical situation in September, due to a number of factors. There were fewer collections organized due to a shortage of personnel, the repercussions of the health crisis and the drop in visits to sites by donors. Today we have taken our heads out of the water, but this extremely critical period requires us to be vigilant, as we are once again sliding into a tense situation. Public holidays, the approach of the holidays … the slightest day without collection weakens the reserves.
Enough to legitimize your concern.
We must adapt to facilitate the donation to Ile-de-France residents. Hence the wider opening of collection sites : Saturday afternoon, at night once a week, more at noon… This pilot device, which has been tested since the end of 2018 at La Pitié-Salpêtrière (13th arrondissement), has proven to be useful, and therefore we have extended it this year to all the sites. Another lever is that of collections in exceptional sites. This has a definite effect on recruiting new donors, allowing people to walk through the door of a place they might not have been able to discover.
What about mobile collections, in companies or on university campuses?
Their end with the pandemic was a real blow, as they represent 30% of donations. Operations are resuming in universities and grandes écoles. In business, teleworking which has become widespread complicates our task. The resumption in universities is in any case a good thing, because we can sensitize a whole age group. The stake is immense. In France, only 4% of people of age and capacity to donate do so, which is very little. In Île-de-France, this figure even drops to 3.4%…. We must inform, communicate, raise awareness.
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