§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what volume of blood donated was used within the NHS, annually, from 1989 to the present day.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe last year for which complete information is available centrally about the number and usage of blood donations is 1993. Complete information is not available centrally for earlier years.
In 1993 there were a total of 2,312,000 donations of whole blood and 120,000 plasmapheresis donations.
An individual donation may be put to a number of uses as a number of components may be harvested from it. In 1993 the figures for the use of donations were:
Whole blood—106,000 of which 97.9 per cent. was NHS usage;Red Cell Components—1,959,000 of which 99.5 per cent. was NHS usage;Platelets—842,000 of which 99.3 per cent. was NHS usage; Fresh Frozen Plasma—266,000;In addition some 486,000 litres of plasma were recovered from whole blood donations and 60,000 litres of plasma from plasmapheresis donations.