Canadian Blood Services has put out a number of nationwide calls for blood donors this summer, however the only way people in Fort McMurray can answer that call is if they make a donation when they are travelling south.
Fort McMurray does not currently have a blood donor clinic and despite a petition from 2010 that has resurfaced to have a satellite blood donor clinic visit the community, no matter how many signatures it gets it will not be able to happened.
In an email, Canadian Blood Services listed several reasons for this including the difficulty in transporting collected blood back to a production site in Edmonton in a timely manner for the blood to be manufactured into life-saving products. Other reasons include labour and transportation costs such as transporting staff and all equipment to and from Edmonton and having to provide meals and at times overnight accommodation to staff who would operate the satellite clinic.
In a 660 NEWS article Canadian Blood Services spokesperson Deb Steele-Kretschmer encourages those travelling to other parts of the country to keep blood donation in mind, and book and honour their appointment
“I would encourage anyone who is travelling — throughout the summer and interested in booking an appointment across Canada, you can visit blood.ca, or download the Give Blood app, and find an appointment at a clinic near you,” Steele-Kretschmer said.
Despite not being able to collect donations in remote locations like Fort McMurray, Canadian Blood Services does supply blood to all hospitals in Alberta.
