Donor Groups Plan to Ease Blood Shortage in New York
AUG 23, 2001
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ [NYT]
WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 — The two groups that collect most
of the nation's donated blood announced plans today to
alleviate an impending blood shortage in the New York metropolitan
region due to a proposed federal ban on European donations.
The New York region stands to lose at least a quarter of its blood
supply if the federal Food and Drug Administration prohibits blood
donations from people who may have been exposed to mad cow
disease in Europe, as it is expected to do in the coming months.
Hospital administrators and blood bank officials in New York have
repeatedly warned that the donor restrictions, if carried out, would
aggravate an existing blood shortage in the region and force its
hospitals to cut back on surgical procedures.
But today, the America's Blood Centers group and the American Red
Cross outlined plans to provide New York with 255,000 additional
pints of blood annually, more than enough to cover the expected
shortfall.
The two organizations said they expected to coordinate the delivery of
blood shipments through the New York Blood Bank, the main
supplier of blood for more than 200 hospitals in New York's five
boroughs, Westchester and Rockland Counties, Long Island and
northern New Jersey.
The Red Cross said it could begin shipping supplies of blood to the
region as early as next month. America's Blood Centers said it would
wait until the spring, when the Food and Drug Administration is
expected to institute the donor restrictions.
America's Blood Centers, which is made up of independent blood
banks, collects and distributes about half the nation's donated blood;
the other half is collected and distributed by the American Red Cross.
The announcements by the two groups followed weeks of intense
negotiations over how to avert a major disruption in the New York
health- care industry. The talks involved federal, state and local
officials, as well as New York's hospital administrators and blood
bank officials.
The actions announced today brought expressions of relief from many
of the same people who were making dire predictions just a few days
ago as the negotiations over a solution seemed to stall between New
York and federal officials.
"These efforts will go a long way toward ensuring that the New York
City region will not experience a public health crisis as a result of the
F.D.A.'s restrictions," said Kenneth E. Raske, the president of the
Greater New York Hospital Association.
"This is great news for New York," said Senator Charles E. Schumer,
a Democrat from New York who has been urging the federal
government to come up with a plan to provide emergency blood
supplies to the metropolitan region.
The restrictions were proposed by the F.D.A. as concerns over
tainted blood rose with the spread of mad cow disease across Britain
and, to a lesser degree, the rest of Europe. The restriction would be
national, but experts say the New York region would be affected the
most because it is the only place in the country that imports blood from
Europe.
The Red Cross intends to provide the New York region with roughly
180,000 pints of blood annually despite what many experts say is a
national blood shortage. Jacquelyn Fredrick, the Red Cross's vice
president for biomedical services, said it could provide the blood
because it is having a major donor recruitment.
Jim MacPherson, the chief executive of America's Blood Centers, said
his group could add about 75,000 pints of blood annually for New
York, mostly through increased collections. That would be on top of
about 50,000 pints that the group already steers to the New York
Blood Bank.
The donor restrictions were endorsed by an F.D.A. advisory panel
last month. The plan calls for excluding blood donations from anyone
who has spent five years or more in Europe since 1980, or three
months or more in Britain from 1980 to 1996.
The federal agency proposed the restrictions in part at the urging of the
American Red Cross, which argues that it is better to err on the side of
caution. |
