Northern Alberta residents face barriers to donating blood despite urgent need

Canadian Blood Services says donations are urgently needed after blood drives were canceled across the country due to the winter storm. The nonprofit says it especially needs donations from people with rare blood types.

Fort McMurray, Alta., resident Christy Cyprian would love to contribute. Her blood type is A-negative, which is shared by only six percent of the Canadian population.

But donating blood isn’t an option for most residents of northern Alberta. Fort McMurray hasn’t hosted a blood drive since 2002 and the last event in Grand Prairie, Alta., was in 2011. Cyprian’s work and family schedules make it difficult to drive to Edmonton to donate, even during shortages.

He said, “I think there are a lot of people in this community who would donate if they could. They can’t.” “I feel like they are doing this community an injustice by not including them.”

Dr. Ritesh Ram, who is chair of rural medicine for the Alberta Medical Association, plans to discuss the issue with Canadian Blood Services (CBS).

“If almost 50 per cent of the province’s geography doesn’t have the ability to donate blood, then maybe that should be an area that someone should pay attention to,” said Ram, who is also a family physician in Drumheller, Alta.

“There are very few, if any, particular areas in the US that are considered rural (not) that have the ability to use any type of collection within a 100-mile radius. Well, that’s certainly not the case in northern Alberta.”

Distance, shelf life challenge Northern blood drive

After blood is drawn it must be packed immediately, and if not used it will eventually expire. Alberta’s main blood donation sites are in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer.

According to CBS, the drive could be held in rural areas near cities. Mobile donor clinics have reached Westlock and Bonnyville in Alberta’s north. However, Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie are considered too remote for a blood drive.

“Hosting a donation event in a remote location may impact our ability to ship blood and blood products within the time frame required to our manufacturing sites to keep donations viable,” CBS said in a statement to CBC News.

The non-profit group still carries blood products from its national inventory across Canada. Rural operating rooms, such as Grande Prairie Regional Hospital and Northern Lights Regional Health Center in Fort McMurray, also have additional blood available, Ram said.

He said he had not heard of any problems with rural medical care because there were no local blood drives. Sometimes people have to travel to larger centers for routine blood transfusions, though Ram said these blood transfusions may be part of complex procedures only available in cities.

“We always talk about the struggles that rural areas have in getting all kinds of services… It’s just another thing that says, ‘Hey, you also don’t have enough blood and you also can’t donate,’” Ram said.

Tawny Yao, UCP MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, said she raised the issue with CBS after hearing from residents like Cyprian. He became involved with local blood drives before they came to a halt and is disappointed that they are no longer working in Fort McMurray.

“I think Fort McMurray is a wonderful place with wonderful people who are extremely generous with their body tissue,” he said. “It’s really good to see that people are still interested in donating blood, even locally in Fort McMurray, and it’s a great display of passion and community.”