I was shocked to learn that a recent cyber-attack on London’s hospitals has disrupted the supply of blood products, especially blood in type O negative and O positive. When the call went out to give blood, I signed up. The NHS relies on blood donors. There’s a book by a Fabian Richard Titmuss written in 1971 called The Gift Relationship.
It compares the system of blood donation in the UK and the US. In the US, blood is bought and sold as a commercial relationship. It means blood is often sold by people desperate for money, who may well have hepatitis or other conditions. We’ve seen the dangers inherent in this approach in the contaminated blood scandal in the UK, when blood products were imported from the US.
In the UK, we donate blood without cash changing hands, although we may get a KitKat and a glass of squash. We do it because of a sense of shared citizenship, and a belief that we can help others without knowing who they are. Donated blood is a gift to strangers. You can see the principle applying across the NHS. To introduce a cash element, as some Tories and Reform UK want, is to undermine our relations as citizens. Anyway, I was very brave and I would encourage you to sign up, especially if you have type-O blood.
