• About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home *Opinion*

New Brunswick Union urges government to protect blood and plasma supply

by Susie Proulx-Daigle
July 8, 2020
Reading Time: 3min read
New Brunswick Union urges government to protect blood and plasma supply

Blood donations. Photo from Pixabay.

For several years, the New Brunswick Union (NBU/NUPGE) has been sounding the alarm on the dangers of allowing for-profit plasma collection clinics to operate in New Brunswick.

One such clinic was opened in Moncton under the Gallant government, and thus far, the current Blaine Higgs administration has not taken any action.

The report of the Krever Commission on the blood supply in Canada cannot be ignored. The current COVID-19 pandemic has made the need to ban this practice even more apparent, both in New Brunswick and nationwide.

For-profit plasma collection clinics are harmful to the province, its citizens, and the national blood and plasma supply.

I recently sent a letter to all members of the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly on this topic. My letter states, in part:

“Given the benefits of protecting our system and helping combat this pandemic through the collection of convalescent plasma, we’re urging the provincial government to bring forward the Voluntary Blood Donations Act. This piece of legislation will ensure Canadian Blood Services is the sole entity that can collect blood and blood products from Canadians. It would mean for-profit clinics – like the one in Moncton – would not be permitted operate in our province.”

In Alberta, which already has a Voluntary Blood Donations Act, a private member’s bill was recently introduced that proposes repealing it. It aims to end the province’s ban on the private purchase of human blood.

During the current COVID-19 health crisis, the supply of blood and plasma through voluntary, non-remunerated collection in Canada is critical to the health and safety of Canadians.

Creating a competitive market for blood donors and permitting for-profit plasma companies – like the one in Moncton – to lure donors away from our public blood system by offering payment and other financial incentives, endangers our ability to secure a healthy, national, voluntary donor base, while also compromising Canadian Blood Services’ plasma collection strategy and our ability to increase plasma self-sufficiency.

In addition, convalescent plasma – plasma from a person who has recovered from an illness – is also in need at this time. After recovering from an illness, your system produces a set of antibody molecules that are now present in your plasma that were not there before. In terms of COVID-19, convalescent plasma can be used to help treat patients with current cases. We need this to be collected by Canadian Blood Services for use in developing a vaccine rather than being collected and sold to the highest bidder on the international market.

It’s also imperative that we protect our supply to produce medication derived from plasma to help treat Canadians who depend on it.

In May 2019, Canadian Blood Services testified before the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology and publicly stated that the private, for-profit collection of plasma will not secure plasma or plasma-derived products for Canadian patients. Instead, plasma collected by for-profit companies in Canada is commercialized and sold on international markets.

Throughout this pandemic we have done what is best for citizens and our healthcare system. Passing the Voluntary Blood Donations Act is another step in the right direction.

The NBU encourages all New Brunswickers to educate themselves on the topic, and contact their MLA, if they so choose, to help protect a vital part of our nation’s health care system. Canadians in all provinces need to make their voices heard on this issue. We cannot afford another public health crisis on top of COVID-19.

New Brunswick Union President Susie Proulx-Daigle is President of the New Brunswick Union (NBU/NUPGE).

NB Media Co-op board member Tracy Glynn wrote a report “The Creeping Privatization of Health Care in New Brunswick,” with the New Brunswick Health Coalition that documents how the province’s public health care model is on a slippery slope towards privatization — and also that many advocacy groups are fighting to stop the slide. The story and link to the report is here.

Tags: bloodCOVID-19health careNew Brunswick UnionprivatizationSusie Proulx-Daigle
Send

Related Posts

Via Rail’s train of shame
Politics

Via Rail’s train of shame

March 19, 2025

Countless horror stories have been told about the Via Rail passenger train that runs between Montreal and Halifax, christened The...

‘A small window into dehumanization’: Palestinian-Canadian doctor on the destruction of health care in Gaza
Palestine

‘A small window into dehumanization’: Palestinian-Canadian doctor on the destruction of health care in Gaza

March 18, 2025

“Do you know how hard a kid fights when you bring a needle to their face and start cutting into...

Higgs’s reckless COVID experiment endangers public health
Health

New Brunswick needs to double addictions and mental health care spending

March 18, 2025

Mental health refers to a person's psychological and emotional well-being which may be negatively impacted under various circumstances. The COVID-19...

New Brunswick’s unchecked timber industries have left our forests in ruin and our people without land
Housing

Homelessness adds to health care costs. A strong welfare state is a healthier one

March 17, 2025

Inadequate access to safe and affordable housing is an expensive health care bill, and all Canadians are paying the cost....

Load More

Recommended

Délai prolongé! COOP Média NB offre d’emploi : Journaliste vidéo autochtone

Toujours pas de justice cinq ans après le meurtre de Chantel Moore

4 days ago
The Millennium Scoop: an ongoing crisis for Indigenous families

The Millennium Scoop: an ongoing crisis for Indigenous families

4 days ago
Livestream: Local News Matters — Incubating local news in the Maritimes [video]

Livestream: Local News Matters — Incubating local news in the Maritimes [video]

11 hours ago
New Brunswick man among activists detained in Egypt ahead of March to Gaza

New Brunswick man among activists detained in Egypt ahead of March to Gaza

2 hours ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

X
Did you like this article? Support the NB Media Co-op! Vous avez aimé cet article ? Soutenez la Coop Média NB !
Join/Donate