Folder Donating safely

Thank you for choosing to be a donor. Your donation can help patients. To make donating as safe as possible both for you and for patients, we’ve set out the key information on this page.

Please read everything carefully. If anything isn’t clear, ask our staff. They’ll be happy to assist.

Safety is important, both for you and for patients

Each time you donate, you’ll fill in a detailed questionnaire. Your answers are important. If an answer you give isn’t accurate, it could put you or patients at risk, even if you didn’t mean to give an incorrect answer. So please read the questions carefully and always answer them honestly.

The questionnaire includes questions about things such as medicines you take, time you’ve spent abroad, illnesses in your family and sexual contacts. There are many other questions too. Some may not seem important to you, but there’s always a good medical reason for asking them.

After you’ve filled in the questionnaire, you’ll discuss your answers with a member of Sanquin staff. Together, we can decide whether it’s safe for you to donate, both for yourself and for patients.

For safety reasons, we also carry out a number of tests before and after your donation. Before every donation we use a finger-prick test to check the level of haemoglobin in your blood. Haemoglobin is a protein that carries oxygen in your blood. If your haemoglobin level is too low, you won’t be able to donate for a while because it would be harmful to your health.

For more information, go to www.sanquin.nl/haemoglobin or scan the QR code.

Blood tests are carried out for every donation

Each time you donate, we also take a few tubes of blood for testing in our laboratory. We use them to determine your blood group and test your blood for infectious diseases. The tests are very reliable, but:

• we don’t test for every infection; 
• if you have an infection that we do test for, it may not show up in your blood during the first few weeks or months. However, you can pass the infection on during this time, including to patients who receive your blood. 

So we can’t rely on blood tests alone. That’s why it’s important that you answer the questionnaire honestly.

For more information, go to www.sanquin.nl/blood-tests 

Which patients can be treated with your donation?

You can donate blood, plasma or platelets. Sanquin uses these donations to make blood products, which we supply to hospitals throughout the Netherlands. These products are used in many different types of treatment, for example during surgery or in treating people with cancer.

We’ll always discuss which type of donation is best for you, as well as what patients in the Netherlands need. Each type of donation is different:

• Blood or platelets: mainly used to treat patients. This is called a transfusion. 
• Plasma: usually used to make medicines to treat patients with a range of conditions. Sanquin doesn’t make these medicines itself. We supply the plasma to manufacturers, who make the medicines for patients in the Netherlands. Most plasma used for transfusions is also produced by a manufacturer.

There are around 800,000 donations of blood, plasma and platelets in the Netherlands each year. It costs money to collect and test these donations, make them into blood products, and deliver them to hospitals. The price Sanquin gets for your blood, plasma and platelets is set by the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport. Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation and therefore does not distribute profits to shareholders or third parties

More information van be found on www.sanquin.nl/donated-blood 

What happens when you donate blood, platelets or plasma?

When you donate blood, a needle is inserted into your arm and your blood is collected in a bag. The donation takes about 10 minutes. There must be at least 8 weeks between donations, so your body has time to replace the blood. Men can donate blood up to 5 times a year and women up to 3 times a year.
When you donate plasma or platelets, a needle is also inserted into your arm. Your blood passes through a tube into a machine, which separates the plasma and/or platelets from the rest of your blood.

These are collected in a bag attached to the machine. Your red blood cells are returned to you straight away through the same tube. The donation takes around 45 minutes. Because your red blood cells are returned to you, you can donate plasma or platelets much more often than blood. The time between two plasma donations is usually two weeks.

For more information, go to www.sanquin.nl/types-of-donation

Problems during or after your donation

We do everything we can to make donating as safe as possible for you and to prevent any problems. The needles Sanquin uses to take blood are safe. We throw away the needle after every donation, so they are never reused. We also clean the skin on your arm thoroughly with an antiseptic before inserting the needle into a vein.

Most people don’t have any problems when they donate, but some do experience discomfort or other symptoms. For example, your skin may react to the antiseptic, and the needle may hurt briefly when it’s inserted. You may feel dizzy or faint during or after your donation. You may also get a bruise on your arm afterwards. If you’ve donated many times, you may develop a small scar.

If you donate plasma or platelets, you may experience some discomfort caused by sodium citrate, an anticoagulant. This liquid is added to the collected blood to prevent it from clotting. A small amount is returned to you with your red blood cells. It can cause tingling around your mouth or make you feel sick or dizzy. We can’t always prevent these symptoms, so if you notice any of them during your donation, tell a member of staff straight away. They can help reduce the discomfort.

It’s always important to take it easy after your donation. Don’t stand up until you feel well, and wait until a member of staff tells you that you can go to the donor café. If you feel unwell during or after your donation, tell us straight away. Sanquin staff are trained to give you the help and advice you need.

For more information, go to www.sanquin.nl /possible-effects 

If you become ill after donating

If you forgot to tell us something when you donated, or if you develop a fever, flu, a cold or another infectious illness afterwards, this could affect the safety of patients who receive your blood. It’s therefore important to contact Sanquin as soon as possible. You can call us on 088-730 8686 (local rates apply).

Your consent

Each time you donate blood, plasma or platelets, you’ll need to fill in and sign a questionnaire. By signing it, you consent to having a needle inserted into your arm and to having blood, plasma or platelets taken.

We try to make the best possible use of your whole donation, including any surplus blood left over after you donate. At your first appointment, we’ll explain how your donations may be used. You’ll also state your preferences, including whether you want to contribute to scientific research. We record all your choices in our systems. You can change them easily at any time, and you don’t need to give a reason.

For more information, go to www.sanquin.nl/permissions

Your privacy

Sanquin takes your privacy seriously. We therefore handle your personal and medical information with care. We treat everything you share with us as confidential.

Our donor physicians have a medical confidentiality obligation. Sometimes the law requires us to share information, for example if we have to report an infectious disease to the public health service, GGD.

Donating needs to be safe for you, and treatment needs to be safe for patients. This means we always need to be able to trace each donation back to the donor and know which blood products we make from it.

Your donation is therefore not anonymous. To protect your privacy, we use a donation number instead of your name. This number appears on the tubes we take from you and on the blood products we make from your donations.

Laboratories, hospitals and patients aren’t given any information that could identify you as the donor. Only Sanquin can link the donation to you. If we want to share your personal data for any other reason, we’ll ask for your consent first.

Contact

If you have any questions after reading this leaflet, you can always ask a member of Sanquin staff. You can also call us on 088-730 8686 (local rates apply). 

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