Blood: Donors

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England and is delivering initiatives to increase blood donations. These include:

• increasing awareness of donation through high-profile year-round campaigns including National Blood Week and World Blood Donor Day alongside the use of social media such as TikTok to reach additional audiences;
• using direct marketing, including phone calls, emails, and text messages, to encourage previous donors to book appointments and attend local sessions;
• increasing appointment availability and targeting communities where specific blood types are most needed through initiatives such as the Community Grants Programme, with further information available at the following link:
• https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/how-you-can-help/get-involved/community-grants-programme/; and
• increasing the number of successful donation appointments by: improving pre-donation haemoglobin (Hb) testing, with low‑Hb deferral rates having fallen since the full rollout of new testing in September 2025; implementing a pilot translation service to reduce language‑related deferrals; and enhancing vein-identification training using ethnicity-specific training arms to help staff recognise vein characteristics across different skin tones and body.