do you donate blood?

StrontiumDog said:
Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...
I donated blood since I was 16. Used to donate regularly, less so when I moved to Pretoria 10 years ago, but still donated as much as I could or was allowed to.
Last year I got COVID, was in ICU for a couple of weeks and because of the drugs my red blood cells were decimated. They had to pump me with 10 units of hemoglobin blood products, then 2 days after I was discharged I was rushed back in because I was vomiting up blood from an ulcer. This required that I get another 5 units of blood.

9 months after getting out of hospital I get a call from a debt collection agency saying I owe the SANBS R55,000 for blood and services (note that this was the first time I ever received any communication from anyone related to the SANBS). It took me 2 months to get the statements of the account so that I could see why I owe said money. R29,000 was blood products, the rest was admin fees and delivery fees, and no discount because I donated blood.

So here is how it works... if you are on medical aid the blood is covered, if you go to a government hospital the blood is covered but if you are a private patient then you have to pay full price (regardless if you donated blood).

SANBS even has a pricelist on its website... so you give that pint of blood for free, and then they charge R2500 for it (excluding delivery and admin fees).
So I refuse to give my blood to an organisation that feels that they get to make money off my blood and give me a ****ing biscuit and a fruit juice in exchange.

So when they start to pay people for their blood then I will donate. I think R250 per donation is fair (my time and petrol are not free), and we know it will bring in more donations.
 
killerbyte said:
I donated blood since I was 16. Used to donate regularly, less so when I moved to Pretoria 10 years ago, but still donated as much as I could or was allowed to.
Last year I got COVID, was in ICU for a couple of weeks and because of the drugs my red blood cells were decimated. They had to pump me with 10 units of hemoglobin blood products, then 2 days after I was discharged I was rushed back in because I was vomiting up blood from an ulcer. This required that I get another 5 units of blood.

9 months after getting out of hospital I get a call from a debt collection agency saying I owe the SANBS R55,000 for blood and services (note that this was the first time I ever received any communication from anyone related to the SANBS). It took me 2 months to get the statements of the account so that I could see why I owe said money. R29,000 was blood products, the rest was admin fees and delivery fees, and no discount because I donated blood.

So here is how it works... if you are on medical aid the blood is covered, if you go to a government hospital the blood is covered but if you are a private patient then you have to pay full price (regardless if you donated blood).

SANBS even has a pricelist on its website... so you give that pint of blood for free, and then they charge R2500 for it (excluding delivery and admin fees).
So I refuse to give my blood to an organisation that feels that they get to make money off my blood and give me a ****ing biscuit and a fruit juice in exchange.

So when they start to pay people for their blood then I will donate. I think R250 per donation is fair (my time and petrol are not free), and we know it will bring in more donations.
Click to expand...
Yikes. Glad I'm with WPBS.
 
killerbyte said:
I donated blood since I was 16. Used to donate regularly, less so when I moved to Pretoria 10 years ago, but still donated as much as I could or was allowed to.
Last year I got COVID, was in ICU for a couple of weeks and because of the drugs my red blood cells were decimated. They had to pump me with 10 units of hemoglobin blood products, then 2 days after I was discharged I was rushed back in because I was vomiting up blood from an ulcer. This required that I get another 5 units of blood.

9 months after getting out of hospital I get a call from a debt collection agency saying I owe the SANBS R55,000 for blood and services (note that this was the first time I ever received any communication from anyone related to the SANBS). It took me 2 months to get the statements of the account so that I could see why I owe said money. R29,000 was blood products, the rest was admin fees and delivery fees, and no discount because I donated blood.

So here is how it works... if you are on medical aid the blood is covered, if you go to a government hospital the blood is covered but if you are a private patient then you have to pay full price (regardless if you donated blood).

SANBS even has a pricelist on its website... so you give that pint of blood for free, and then they charge R2500 for it (excluding delivery and admin fees).
So I refuse to give my blood to an organisation that feels that they get to make money off my blood and give me a ****ing biscuit and a fruit juice in exchange.

So when they start to pay people for their blood then I will donate. I think R250 per donation is fair (my time and petrol are not free), and we know it will bring in more donations.
Click to expand...

There's cost involved in getting the blood from you, staff to pay and they probably have a crap load tests to do to ensure you get blood that is safe, non of that is cheap. Admittedly I also think you should get a discount if you donate,
 
I don’t but that’s mostly down to the fact that even getting a blood sample from me tends to be a bit of an exercise.
My last round, last week, involved being poked in each arm to no avail with a manual extraction using a syringe from my hand being the last resort which worked.
 
killerbyte said:
I donated blood since I was 16. Used to donate regularly, less so when I moved to Pretoria 10 years ago, but still donated as much as I could or was allowed to.
Last year I got COVID, was in ICU for a couple of weeks and because of the drugs my red blood cells were decimated. They had to pump me with 10 units of hemoglobin blood products, then 2 days after I was discharged I was rushed back in because I was vomiting up blood from an ulcer. This required that I get another 5 units of blood.

9 months after getting out of hospital I get a call from a debt collection agency saying I owe the SANBS R55,000 for blood and services (note that this was the first time I ever received any communication from anyone related to the SANBS). It took me 2 months to get the statements of the account so that I could see why I owe said money. R29,000 was blood products, the rest was admin fees and delivery fees, and no discount because I donated blood.

So here is how it works... if you are on medical aid the blood is covered, if you go to a government hospital the blood is covered but if you are a private patient then you have to pay full price (regardless if you donated blood).

SANBS even has a pricelist on its website... so you give that pint of blood for free, and then they charge R2500 for it (excluding delivery and admin fees).
So I refuse to give my blood to an organisation that feels that they get to make money off my blood and give me a ****ing biscuit and a fruit juice in exchange.

So when they start to pay people for their blood then I will donate. I think R250 per donation is fair (my time and petrol are not free), and we know it will bring in more donations.
Click to expand...
Standard economics. Why would I give away, what another company makes money from? NOWHERE in the medical industry is anything for free. I won't even donate my organs. For some organ transplant doctor to buy a new Porsche from while in my life I could never afford such things. **** that. People die. It's part of life. When I need blood I'll happily let my medical aid pay for it. If there isn't any, well then I die. But there will always be sheep who donate. So I'm covered. :D
 
killerbyte said:
I donated blood since I was 16. Used to donate regularly, less so when I moved to Pretoria 10 years ago, but still donated as much as I could or was allowed to.
Last year I got COVID, was in ICU for a couple of weeks and because of the drugs my red blood cells were decimated. They had to pump me with 10 units of hemoglobin blood products, then 2 days after I was discharged I was rushed back in because I was vomiting up blood from an ulcer. This required that I get another 5 units of blood.

9 months after getting out of hospital I get a call from a debt collection agency saying I owe the SANBS R55,000 for blood and services (note that this was the first time I ever received any communication from anyone related to the SANBS). It took me 2 months to get the statements of the account so that I could see why I owe said money. R29,000 was blood products, the rest was admin fees and delivery fees, and no discount because I donated blood.

So here is how it works... if you are on medical aid the blood is covered, if you go to a government hospital the blood is covered but if you are a private patient then you have to pay full price (regardless if you donated blood).

SANBS even has a pricelist on its website... so you give that pint of blood for free, and then they charge R2500 for it (excluding delivery and admin fees).
So I refuse to give my blood to an organisation that feels that they get to make money off my blood and give me a ****ing biscuit and a fruit juice in exchange.

So when they start to pay people for their blood then I will donate. I think R250 per donation is fair (my time and petrol are not free), and we know it will bring in more donations.
Click to expand...

Yikes, that's steep and infuriating.

On the other hand, at least there was blood available because people donated.

And the NBS is non profit. The buildings, equipment, people that draw the blood, that transport it and test it, the bags, the storage etc all needs to be paid.
I also think that especially in SA with plenty of people with high risk lifestyles and rampant unemployment, that paying people will drive the costs up much more than the R250 people will be paid. Either in admin fees or unusable blood.
 
Used to do my bit in high school, but they could only use my plasma because of the meds I was on. Definitely won’t be able to do so now, unfortunately, because I’m on even more meds.
 
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killerbyte said:
SANBS even has a pricelist on its website... so you give that pint of blood for free, and then they charge R2500 for it (excluding delivery and admin fees).
So I refuse to give my blood to an organisation that feels that they get to make money off my blood and give me a ****ing biscuit and a fruit juice in exchange.
Click to expand...

But are there ANY competitors to the SANBS at all, except in the Western Cape?
 
"D" said:
But are there ANY competitors to the SANBS at all, except in the Western Cape?
Click to expand...
there used to be blood fractionation units that were private ,but were eventually incorporated into SANBS and any fractionation units you donated before that werent counted with youre SANBS units ,left a bad taste in my mouth that ..
 
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