In 2021, people in Coesfeld and Goxel donated their blood a total of 1,464 times. That is 131 fewer blood donations than in 2020. That year, the numbers remained almost constant compared to 2019 and differed by only one blood donation.
As in 2020, the DRK local association in Coesfeld was only able to offer one blood donation appointment in Goxel last year. 2020 was the last date before the start of the pandemic. “We always have the truck trailers in Goxel, and it was too narrow in there to comply with the distance rule,” explains Steckel. Now they have had two trailers since November 2021. “They can then be used to half capacity.” This also explains the drop from 83 donations in 2020 in Goxel to 51 in 2021. “As usual, four appointments are planned in Goxel this year,” informs the blood donation officer. If you look at the Goxel numbers before Corona, it becomes clear that the overall decline is not as serious as the blood donations in Goxel were lost. “The donors are quite willing to go further,” said Steckel in recognition of this commitment. In addition, other donors would also come to Coesfeld from further afield. However, there is no pattern in which months a particularly large or small amount is donated.
The allocation of appointments, which the DRK introduced in May 2020 and also leads to a shorter waiting time for donors, met with unanimous approval. Even after the end of the corona pandemic, the DRK will stick to it. However, this means that certain “outliers upwards”, which have already occurred in one month or another in previous years, “are not organizationally possible”, says Steckel.
The 3G rule has been in effect for blood donations for the past month. “In December, however, 100 percent of the donors were vaccinated and some had an additional test,” observed Steckel.
The number of blood donations, which has been declining since 2012 – with small exceptions in 2016 and 2017 – follows the overall demographic trend. “We just don’t have enough young talent,” says Steckel. “That’s why the donor age has already been raised from 65 to 75 years by the blood donation service, if people still feel fit.” That’s why the actions of the Pictorius and Oswald von Nell-Breuning vocational colleges, who want to counteract this trend with their own blood donation campaigns, are all the more valuable. “That’s where the clientele of first-time donors is,” says Heiko Steckel. “So that’s a good thing. Everyone benefits from that.”
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