Canadian Blood Services
Canadian Blood Services (French: Société canadienne du sang) is a non-profit charitable organization that is independent from the Canadian government.[3] The Canadian Blood Services was established as Canada's blood authority in all provinces and territories except for Quebec in 1998.[4] The federal, provincial and territorial governments created the Canadian Blood Services through a memorandum of understanding.[5] Canadian Blood Services is funded mainly through the provincial and territorial governments.[5]
Formation
1998
Non-profit
To provide lifesaving products and services in transfusion and transplantation for Canadian patients, and to safeguard Canada's systems of life essentials in blood, plasma, stem cells, and organs and tissues.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Graham D. Sher
~$1 billion [1]
CAD $1.18 billion (2019)
CAD $1.17 billion (2019)
4,000
17,000
Canadian Blood Services is a health-care system that is part of Canada's broader network of systems, and it is currently the only organization that is funded by Canada's provincial and territorial governments for manufacturing biological products.[5] In addition to providing blood and blood products, the organization also provides transfusion and stem cell registry services on behalf of all provincial and territorial governments besides Quebec.[5] All provinces and territories are able to access the national transplant registry for inter-provincial organ sharing and related programs.[5]
It has a unique relationship with Héma-Québec, the provincial blood system operator that provides products to patients and manages Quebec's stem cell donor registry.[6] The two organizations work closely to share blood products in times of need and collaborate regularly to share information, insights and data.[7][8]
There are several reasons why individuals can be deferred from donating blood, including intravenous drug use, living in the UK for certain periods of time, coming from an HIV-endemic country, and engaging in activities that confer a high risk of HIV.[9]
Canadian Blood Services has been criticized for moving away from an unpaid voluntary donor model towards a commercial model based on monetary incentives for donation.[10]
Canadian Blood Services has a multi-tiered system to measure the safety of their blood supply.[11] Before donating, donors are first screened for their health.[11]
The screening process for prospective donors includes:[12]
Once the blood is donated, it must then go through testing for infectious diseases, including but not limited to HIV and hepatitis.[11][13] Blood is also surveyed to monitor transmittable diseases in blood donors, investigated for possible transfusion-transmitted infections in blood recipients, and scanned for potential emerging pathogens that may pose a risk in the present or future.[11][13] All these safety measures are done to protect blood recipients.[11]
Previously, there was ambiguity regarding the screening process for trans donors before the national criteria were implemented.[33] On August 15, 2016, Canadian Blood Services' new eligibility criteria for transgender people came into effect.[34] According to these criteria:
There is currently little research done on the trans population in Canada; however, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has summarized information from the U.S. and European countries stating that the prevalence of trans women in the U.S. and other high-income countries is 22 to 28 percent.[36] Canadian Blood Services' two main risk factors for trans donors include:
In an effort to receive input from the LGBTQ community regarding the policies put in place for both MSM and trans donors, several consultations with this community have occurred. Two in-person consultations with trans and gender non-binary communities took place: one on Nov. 17, 2016 in Vancouver, and one on Dec. 8, 2016 in Toronto.[37]