Press room

The WP Blood Transfusion Service (WPBTS) invites its donors, as well as potential donors, to #ShareYourHeart by partaking in its Instagram competition during February.

“As Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms, WPBTS has decided to embrace the platform which will enable the Service to communicate in real time using Instagram Stories and Instagram Live,” says Marlize van der Merwe, WPBTS Spokesperson. “This platform also presents WPBTS with an opportunity to educate its followers on the inner workings of the Service.”

The WP Blood Transfusion Service (WPBTS) wishes to thank its blood donors for the support received during the Festive Season.

“We received remarkable support from the Western Cape, permanent residence and visitors alike,” says Marlize van der Merwe, WPBTS Spokesperson.

The WPBTS wishes everyone a happy and prosperous 2017. 

A new year creates time for reflection of the past year and inspires new challenges. These challenges become New Year’s Resolutions – what do we want to achieve, what do we want to change and what do we need to do to reach these ideals?

In 2017, instead of giving something up, people in the Western Cape are being asked to give, by giving blood regularly and helping to save lives. 

It’s Festive Season and many of us can’t wait to kick back, relax and take a well-deserved break!  Although this is the time of year many people look forward to, the Blood Service in turn will be entering one of its most difficult periods.

Besides the roads being extremely busy, blood collections tend to decline as fewer people remember to donate blood before going on holiday.  This added to the fact that many of our regular blood collection venues close their doors during the holidays, means that the Service has less access to its donors. 

The Zika virus has rapidly spread across South and Central America and Oceania in the last 2 years, recently reaching Singapore and islands off the coast of North West Africa. WP Blood has implemented a self-deferral policy if you or your partner have visited these countries in the last 28 days.

Please find the updated Zika Information Sheet here.

Currently the Western Cape has an adequate 3.5 day blood supply, but this supply is unfortunately not the ideal of a five to seven day blood supply.

The 2011 Census results indicated that there are almost six million people living within the Western Cape.  However, less than 1.5% of the population in the Western Cape are blood donors.

This is a worrying statistic for the Western Province Blood Transfusion Service (WPBTS).  “As the population in the Western Cape is ever increasing and access to medical care is becoming easier, we need more blood donors to fulfill the demand for safe blood and blood products”, says Marlize van der Merwe, WPBTS Corporate Public Relations Officer. 

The September edition of the WPBTS Blood Buzz is now available here!

The Western Province Blood Transfusion Service (WPBTS) relies on the altruism of thousands of blood donors to ensure it continually has stocks of the correct blood type to help treat critically ill patients.  In the Western Cape alone the Service has to collect 700 units of blood daily to meet the need of patients.

During the week of 15 to 21 August 2016, WPBTS will be participating with 21 countries in an international awareness campaign to encourage more people to register as blood donors and donate blood.

You are kind, generous and brave. You give unselfishly of yourself to provide for your loved ones. You are a remarkable woman. Therefore the WP Blood Transfusion Service (WPBTS) wishes all our female donors a joyful and prosperous Women’s Month.

WPBTS is committed to the health and safety of the recipient, as well as the donor. Therefore various precautions are taken before a donor is able to donate blood. These precautions lead to women having a few extra hurdles to overcome should they wish to donate blood.