Hospitals are struggling to supply emergency blood for patients

CHICO, Calif. – Hospitals are still struggling with emergency blood shortages, and during the summer, blood donations become even more scarce.

Action News Now spoke with Victoria Wolfe from Vitalant and she said there is a number of reasons why this is going on, but the main one is there is a drop in donors during this time of the year.

Wolfe told Action News Now between Memorial Day and Labor Day the demand for blood goes up due to an increase of recreational and motor accidents and donors are taking the time to go on vacation. Across the board, Vitalant has seen a drop in donors.

“Regular donors are on vacation, we have fewer blood drives because schools and colleges are out,” Wolfe said. “It’s always been a challenging time, this year even more challenging because we’ve seen 8,000 fewer donors since June and that means that the blood supply is low.”

Wolfe says the summer is a critical time for donations. Instead of having four or five days of blood supply for patients, Vitalant is managing with two or three days of supply.

If you are looking to donate sooner than August, you can use this link.