THE last Blood Donation Service at The Larruperz Centre in Ross-on-Wye took place on Wednesday, October 18th, 2017.

The service will be moving to the Millenium Hall in Upton Bishop; the first appointments are on January 4th, 2018.

June Pearce, Manager at The Larruperz Centre said that the Blood Service sent a letter to them to say that the move was due to the need for ‘bigger premises.’

The Larruperz Centre queried this, as the Blood Service used to hire two rooms in the building, but stopped hiring the second, limiting themselves to just the one room.

June Pearce said: “The Blood Service will lose out, as most Ross people won’t go to Upton Bishop. Some people come in their lunch break, and some don’t drive.”

The NHS Blood and Transplant Regional Planning Manager, Alexandra Low, said: “The Larruperz Centre has served us well in providing space for us to hold blood donation sessions and we would like to thank the organisers for the use of their venue.

“We are constantly reviewing our blood donation programme and from time to time we need to reassess where we hold blood donation sessions.

“We are moving towards a blood donation programme where we hold sessions in larger venues so we can accommodate nine beds at any one time. This enables us to be more targeted in how and where we collect blood to treat patients.

“Hospital demand has fallen over recent years and we need to match that demand with the amount of blood we supply, whilst at the same time making sure we run our sessions as efficiently and effectively as possible. Because of this we sometimes need to review where we hold sessions.

“We have decided to relocate from the Larruperz Centre to Upton Bishop to enable us to run nine bed sessions while maintaining donor confidentiality and safety.

“These decisions are not made lightly and unfortunately, the Larruperz Centre no longer offers the space we need for a nine bed session. We reviewed the best way to care for our donors and we need venues where the donor screening booths, donation beds and refreshment facilities all need to be in the same room.

“The venue at Upton Bishop will allow us to collect blood more efficiently, meaning we can accommodate more donors in a larger space and only collect the blood we need. We are very grateful to The Larruperz Centre for their years of support.”

Ross-on-Wye councillor, Phil Cutter, who raised the issue at the Ross Town Council meeting, said, “The move is inconvenient for people that are reasonably local, and they will be losing donors – meaning a smaller supply of blood for those who need it.”