Transfusions for people with thalassaemia in Cyprus have been repeatedly postponed during a two-month blood shortage that doctors and patients describe as unprecedented, parliament’s Health Committee heard on Thursday.
Blood donors would be eligible for tiered road tax reductions, free or cheaper parking, public transport concessions and priority treatment at certain services under a package of non-financial incentives being discussed to attract and keep volunteer donors.
The National Blood Strategy 2026-2030 is expected to go to the cabinet next week, the committee heard. It aims to keep national blood stocks at three to five days’ supply and to cut unnecessary transfusions by at least 30 per cent from 2025 levels. The target covers transfusions that can be avoided by applying appropriate medical protocols, not those patients need.
Patients
Shortages in the past usually lasted a few days, the committee heard, but this time the situation has gone on for weeks and transfusions have not returned to normal.
Sotiroula Christou, a doctor at the Thalassaemia Clinic at Makarios Hospital, said the length of the shortage was unprecedented and warned that the repeated delays could harm patients’ health. A single postponement did not necessarily cause an immediate medical complication, she said, but when transfusions were put off again and again, patients spent longer with low haemoglobin levels and fell short of the targets set in their treatment protocols. Patients have to rearrange their plans repeatedly, take time off work and go back to hospital for postponed transfusions.
Miltos Miltiadous, president of the Federation of Patients’ Associations of Cyprus (OSAK) and of the Pancyprian Thalassaemia Association, told the committee that patients were no longer facing occasional shortages lasting a few days but a situation that had gone on for two months. He relayed the account of a woman with thalassaemia who described the difficulties caused by the postponements and by being given fewer units of blood than scheduled.
The Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) has added to the General Health System (GHS) a treatment for thalassaemia patients that aims to reduce their need for transfusions, the committee heard. A second treatment was registered and priced in recent days, a representative of the Pharmaceutical Services said, and the HIO said it was ready to assess it. The HIO representative said a fast-track access programme was being drawn up and expressed hope that the new treatment would be included.
Staff and distribution
Andri Panayiotou, head of the Blood Centre, backed incentives for donors, as did patient representatives. She said more donors had come forward in recent years but not enough to keep up with growing demand, and a shortage of blood donation assistants was limiting the scope to extend opening hours and hold more blood drives away from the stations.
In Limassol, extending opening hours takes more than 100 hours of overtime a month, she said, while staff shortages in Larnaca, Paphos and Famagusta mean stations there cannot extend their hours in the same way. She also pointed to the obstacles workers face when they want to give blood, raising the issue of time off, and said teaching about voluntary blood donation should start at school.
The problem also lies in how blood is distributed. Marios Karaiskakis, president of the Pancyprian Association of Private Hospitals (PASIN), told the committee there were cases in which units of blood sat in one hospital’s fridges while other hospitals ran short.
“That is why we are calling for a single electronic system to be installed,” he said, adding that it would record where every unit of blood was across Cyprus and make it easier to redistribute stocks when needed.
Maria Adamou, director of hospital blood banks at the Health Ministry, also stressed the need for blood to be used rationally, with common rules and systematic monitoring of transfusions.
Surgery
PASIN said machines that can reduce the need for transfusions during surgery were already in place in large hospitals but remained largely unused, because the HIO does not reimburse the consumable needed to run them, which costs about 600 euros per case.
The intraoperative blood salvage machines collect and process blood a patient loses during an operation and, where appropriate, give it back to the same patient. PASIN said each use saved an average of four units of blood and wanted the HIO to reimburse the method.
According to a memorandum submitted by PASIN, the health minister ordered the request to be resubmitted to the HIO on 4 March, but there has been no outcome so far. An HIO representative confirmed that the organisation had been briefed on blood salvage methods in operating theatres and was examining whether they could help save blood.
Strategy
The strategy was finalised on 2 September as part of the work of the National Blood Donation Council. It also provides for stronger haemovigilance and systematic monitoring of blood use in public and private hospitals.
As a first step, the cabinet on 21 October approved regulations setting up haemovigilance and transfusion surveillance committees, which will monitor transfusions, record adverse events and check that the relevant protocols are followed.
