WOMEN-ONLY and “faith-based sessions” are to be run by the blood service in an effort to boost donations among black, Asian and ethnic minority groups.
Collection points where only women are invited or men and women are segregated by screens have already been tested in certain mosques, temples and denominations.
However, NHS Blood and Transplant plans to introduce the model on a larger scale with more frequent sessions that will also be open to the general public.
Its chief executive, Ian Trenholm, said: “The big group of people that we really want to recruit more of are those from black, Asian and ethnic minorities because their blood groups tend to be more unusual. As our society becomes more diverse we need a blood supply that matches our diversity and we haven’t got that now.”
Some rare blood types only found among such groups, and some medical conditions such as sickle cell anaemia, which is mostly found among the ethnic minority population, require long-term transfusion programmes. It is beneficial to these patients if the blood they receive is from a similar ethnic group.
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The new drive for such donors aims to address “cultural differences” such as ensuring modesty for female Muslim donors who do not feel comfortable exposing their arms.
Trenholm said: “It’s difficult to give a straightforward answer as to why blood donation is lower among these groups. It’s not a case of pointing to one religion; you find there are people with different beliefs within one faith where you will have different levels of donation.”
He added: “It’s true for both blood and organs that ethnic minority communities don’t give blood or give organs in the same way that the white community do.”
Figures show that of 1,320 deceased organ donors in Britain last year, 74 were from ethnic communities. People from these groups who need a transplant are waiting up to a year longer than white patients.