The Australian Red Cross’s Lifeblood service has strongly denied there are blood shortages in regional Western Australia, despite a cancer patient on the Goldfields being turned away from transfusion appointments for the second time this month. 

Long-time Kalgoorlie resident Nick Fardell has been battling a blood cancer, known as myelodysplastic syndrome, for several months.

The mine worker and electrician told the ABC he attends Kalgoorlie Health Campus for fortnightly transfusion appointments, but twice in May he has been told there was a shortage of type A blood. 

Mr Fardell, who is due to undergo a stem cell transplant in the coming months, said he was now considering moving to Perth until his treatment was completed.

“You just can’t roll up to hospital and be told, ‘Can you go home and come back another day?'” he said.

“It’s too hard on the family; it’s too hard on me.

“I don’t mind it happening to me, in a way, because there are a lot of people who are worse off in this world than me, but it can’t go on.”

Mr Fardell, who ran in the 2019 federal election for the Nationals and the 2021 state election, is now lobbying for a meeting with Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson during next month’s community cabinet meeting in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. 

“If the plane doesn’t roll up with the blood on it, I have to wait for another day. It’s very hard at the minute,” he said.

‘Healthy inventory’: Lifeblood 

As recently as March 21, Lifeblood issued press statements making an “urgent call for blood donors”, saying it needed 3,600 people to donate within a week.  

But Lifeblood’s national director of collection operations Brett King denied there were blood shortages in regional WA.

He said some cases, including cancer patients, required special blood products.

“I’d like to assure everyone in regional WA that supplies all over the state are not being impacted at the moment,” Mr King said.

“We’re in a healthy inventory position, particularly at Kalgoorlie Health Campus. That’s currently well stocked and there are no shortages of blood in Kalgoorlie.

“I can’t speak about specific cases for privacy reasons, but we have been able to fulfil all of our orders. 

WA government-run PathWest Laboratory Medicine said it worked closely with Lifeblood to “ensure adequacy of blood supply”.

“PathWest Transfusion Medicine performs the necessary cross-matching procedure to enable patients to receive scheduled blood transfusions,” PathWest said in a statement.

“In rare circumstances, special treatment of blood is required to ensure patient safety.

“The blood transfusion will proceed once appropriate measures have been undertaken.”

Push for donor centre

The latest incident comes amid calls for the return of a Kalgoorlie blood donor centre, which was closed by the Australian Red Cross in 2013 due to staff shortages.

Albany and Bunbury are the only regional centres in WA with blood donor centres still operating.

“We’re constantly looking at the network and where we can potentially put new donor centres or mobile collection sites — we call them either donor mobile units or pop-ups,” Mr King said.

“We’re doing that right now. We’re having a good look right across the country to where we can get those mobile sites to ensure they meet the needs of our patients right into the future.”

Pressed again on the likelihood of a donor centre reopening in Kalgoorlie, he said:

“We receive hundreds of requests each year from right across the country to collect blood in new or old locations like Kalgoorlie,” Mr King said.

“When we make those decisions around new centre or mobile locations we’ve got to look at a number of factors around proximity to processing centres around the country, what we can get with our donation rate, and availability of qualified staff.”

Call for resources funding

Mr King said the Lifeblood service was “appropriately funded by the government” to meet current demand.

It followed comments from former City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder deputy mayor Doug Daws, who claimed the mining industry would jump at the opportunity to fund a mobile blood service, similar to commercial arrangements like Rio Tinto’s sponsorship of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

“I’m 100 per cent confident it would only require a couple of phone calls to some of our mining magnates,” Mr Daws said.

“They’re very generous people with a great sense of humanity … and they would jump behind something that is so fundamental to the health of the broader community.

“I’d be astonished if they didn’t put their hand up and say, ‘Pick me.'”

Last week, the state government appointed former Chamber of Minerals and Energy CEO Reg Howard-Smith as the inaugural chairman of its Resources Community Investment Initiative. 

The group launched an expression of interest process for mining companies to identify projects they wished to contribute towards with $750 million currently committed by resources giants like Rio Tinto, BHP, Hancock Prospecting, Woodside Energy, Chevron Australia, and Mineral Resources.

Mr Howard-Smith was asked if a mobile blood donor service would qualify for funding.

“Health is certainly on the agenda,” he said.

“It’s now up to the companies to nominate what they would like to fund in the regions.”

An initial pipeline of projects has already been identified including the Perth Zoo Master Plan, Remote Aboriginal Communities Fund, Perth Concert Hall redevelopment, expansion of Ronald McDonald House, and additional contributions to Telethon.