Wednesday, 06. July 2022

Blood reserves - supply bottleneck in Eastern Austria

Lower Austrian Medical Association urgently appeals to doctors and the public to donate blood. Operations have already had to be postponed due to a lack of blood reserves.

As reported several times in recent days, there is currently a shortage of blood reserves in the east of Austria. As the 1st Vice-President of the Lower Austrian Medical Association, OA Dr. Andreas Zeitelberger, explains, this also affects the hospitals in Lower Austria: "The situation is dramatic, operations already have to be triaged. From my experience as a trauma surgeon, I unfortunately have to confirm that we currently have no choice but to postpone operations because there are not enough blood reserves available." In addition to the blood needed for planned operations, there must of course always be a certain supply for acute cases, such as accidents.

Anyone and everyone from the population can save livesThe Lower Austrian Medical Association therefore appeals to the population and especially to the medical profession for active support. Dr. Harald Schlögel, President of the Lower Austrian Medical Association, says: "We are informing all doctors in our province about the dramatic situation and are providing a poster for the surgeries to inform patients. We have to make it clear to the population that the situation is extremely serious and that each one of us can be affected by it. Only if we stick together and help each other can we save lives. As soon as triage is necessary, only life-saving interventions or therapies will be performed at first until the situation improves. We have to prevent this state of emergency by all means."

Where to donate blood promptly in Lower Austria can be found out quickly and easily on the Red Cross website at www.roteskreuz.at/blutspende/blutspendetermine or at the St. Pölten blood bank at https://blutspenden.noe-lga.at.

Blood reserves - supply bottleneck in Eastern Austria

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