Cariboo residents are still encouraged to donate blood although they may have to travel a bit further for the nearest permanent clinic.
Director of Donor Relations for BC and Yukon, David Patterson says with last week’s announcement of the closure of the clinic in Prince George, they will be looking at managing their inventory as well as balance funding requirements.
“We are a publicly funded organization and such we need to use the money that is given to us in the most effective way possible.”
“Also from a blood perspective, to make sure that we’re not collecting more than we require. With Prince George, in our mix for the coming years, we would have had too much capacity built in”
“The last piece is we need to really good job collecting at the clinics that we do have.”
Three permanent Canadian Blood Donor Clinics, including Prince George, are slated to close on June 1st.
The next nearest blood donor clinic for Cariboo residents will be in Kelowna with a mobile unit in Kamloops.