The life-giving service is calling on donors in Canterbury to help restore their stocks.
The service needs donors in the region to roll up their sleeves and help fill the appointment gaps caused by the Omicron outbreak.
NZBS spokesperson Asuka Burge said across Canterbury and Otago, the service needs more than 1200 donations for the month of April to meet the current demand.
“During the month of March, across the Canterbury region, around 30 per cent of appointments booked to donate blood and plasma were cancelled.
“The combination of cancellations and low future appointment bookings are making it difficult to accurately forecast collections rates and meet targets,” she said.
The service always tries to have on-hand about 1000 units of A-Positive blood type blood in stock, but recent high demand has seen this drop to less than 600 units nationwide.
One donation equals one unit.
“We need healthy, eligible donors in the Canterbury region to book an appointment to donate to help us ensure we can continue to have enough supply to meet demand.
"We also need people who cannot attend a scheduled appointment to either reschedule or cancel the appointment, in order to free up slots for other people who can donate.”
The Christchurch Donor Centre is located at 15 Lester Lane, Addington.
The Dunedin Donor Centre is located at 170 Crawford St.
The NZBS is also holding mobile blood drives across the Canterbury & Otago regions in April at the following locations:
- Croyden Heartland Hotel, 100 Waimea St, Croyden, Gore, Tues 5 April 9:00am-3:00pm & Wed 6 April 8:30am-2:00pm.
- South Otago Town & Country, 1 Yarmouth St, Balclutha, Thurs 7 April, 10:30am-2:30pm
- Tait Communications, 245 Wooldridge Rd, Harewood, Christchurch, Tues 12 April, 8:30am-1:30pm
- City on Bealey, Knox Presbyterian Church, 28 Bealey Ave, Chch Central, Christchurch, Wed 13 April, 9:30am-2:30pm
- Rolleston Community Centre, 94 Rolleston Dr, Rolleston, Thurs 14 April, 9:00am-2:30pm
- Sinclair Community Centre, 74 Park Street, Ashburton, Tues 19 April, 1.00pm-5.00pm & Wed 20 April, 10:30am-3:30pm
- Chch Baptist Church on Burwood, 9 Burwood Rd, Burwood, Christchurch, Thurs 21 April, 2:00pm-6:00pm
- Rangiora Baptist Church, 111 East Belt, Rangiora, Tues 26 April 1:30pm-6:00pm & Wed 27 April 9.00am-2:00pm
- CCC Civic Offices, 53 Hereford St, Chch Central, Christchurch, Thurs 28 April, 9:30am-2:30pm
