More mobile blood donor clinics shut down in St. John's
Canadian Blood Services is shutting down more mobile clinics than previously announced, according to internal documents obtained by CBC News.
Three clinics in and around St. John's will be shut down in the coming months.
Nurses will no longer go to Atlantic Place, the North West Atlantic Fisheries building that houses the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, or to the Marine Institute.
This is on top of the discontinuation of mobile clinics in the Goulds neighbourhood of St. John's, as well as in Torbay and Mount Pearl.
Those closures were reported in April, after CBC News learned of them through provincial government documents.
During an interview at that time, a spokesperson didn't reveal that other clinics would be shut down. The details were revealed in an internal blood services presentation obtained by CBC.
"It's not something we necessarily publish as a story," Peter MacDonald, director of donor relations for Atlantic Canada, told CBC.
'We're not seeing the same results'
The number of donors visiting these corporate clinics has been dropping, he said, and now donors are instead encouraged to visit the permanent clinic in St. John's.
"Our donor base isn't responding the same way to corporate clinic events as we've had before, we're not seeing the same results," said MacDonald.
Even with fewer mobile clinics available, MacDonald said Canadian Blood Services is counting on more donations this year.
The 2017 target for Newfoundland and Labrador is 15,577 units of blood — a five per cent increase over the 2016 target, which wasn't met. MacDonald said the donations were about 10 per cent short of last year's goal.
MacDonald insists there will be little to no cutback in hours or staff because of the changes. The permanent clinic recently started opening on Saturdays.
