Canadian Blood Services recently cancelled their mobile donor centre on April 6th in Rimbey, and have expanded their hours in the Red Deer donor centre for the coming week. 

“We were set to have a mobile blood donor centre in the town of Rimbey on April 6th but unfortunately that venue (Peter Lougheed Community Centre) needed to cancel due to some closures of their facility. To help offset that cancellation of blood donation we would have been able to collect in Rimbey, we are opening the Red Deer donor centre on Monday, April 6th instead,” explained Jennifer Gretzan, Associate Director of Donor Relations. 

Gretzan says Rimbey donors are welcome to join the clinic in Red Deer to donate.

Additionally, for one week only Canadian Blood Services have expanded their hours to incorporate more appointments. In light of the pandemic,  appointment donations are only available at this time and Canadian Blood Services will not be taking in walk-ins.

“We’ve expanded our Red Deer Blood Donor Clinic hours for next week only including adding donor centre hours on Monday, April 6th. We did that in response to (the pandemic) making sure that we’re keeping a strong inventory and collection,” said Gretzan. 

Gretzen says that giving blood is still as safe as ever and staff and volunteers are going through vigorous testing before they are allowed to get to work. Those donating should be aware that they cannot be sick when they donate and should not have been travelling within the last 14 days. 

“Only healthy people are eligible to donate blood. Any prospective donors are screened for symptoms of illness and if they were experiencing even mild symptoms of flu or cold-like symptoms, they wouldn’t be eligible to donate,” added Gretzan. 

Gretzan noted that since the COVID-19 outbreak began, Canadian Blood Services cleaning practice has been enhanced even further.

“We already have a rigorous infection control and cleaning practice in our donor centres but in light of the recent development with COVID-19 we’ve introduced enhanced cleaning measures, physical distancing measures and wellness stations in our donor centres,” added Gretzan. 

The new hours and dates for the Red Deer Blood are as follows: 

  • Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 3 PM-7 PM
  • Friday, Saturday 9 AM-1 PM

As of March 26th, there are 96 available bookings from April 1st to 4th. Between April 6th and 11th there are 252 available bookings. 

To make an appointment, call the Red Deer Donor Clinic at 1-888-236-6283.