O Positive and O Negative Donors Asked to Urgently Book Appointments to Give Blood Following London Hospitals IT Incident

• O blood type donors asked to urgently fill appointments across south east London this National Blood Week
• Visit blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 23 23

10 Jun 2024

NHS Blood and Transplant is calling for O Positive and O Negative blood donors to urgently donate blood as healthcare providers in south east London continue to experience disruption to services following a cyber incident.

The NHS is advising patients in south east London who need urgent medical care to continue to come forward as normal.

The IT incident affecting a pathology provider means the affected hospitals cannot currently match patients’ blood at the same frequency as usual.

For surgeries and procedures requiring blood to take place, hospitals need to use O type blood as this is safe to use for all patients. 

That means more units of these types of blood than usual will be required over the coming weeks to support the wider efforts of frontline staff to keep services running safely for local patients.

South east London donors can find their nearest blood donation venue here: Where to donate – NHS Give Blood or call 0300 123 23 23