The Mike Hosking Breakfast
Sam Cliffe: NZ Blood Service CEO says more plasma donors are needed
07 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: Why is there a need for more plasma donors in New Zealand?
Now, it turns out that even though we currently have a record number of Kiwis donating plasma, it is still not enough. More than 25,000 people donated last year, but we still need another 4,000 to step up just to meet demand. Sam Cliff is the Chief Executive of New Zealand Blood Service and is with us. Morning, Sam. Good morning. Thanks very much for coming into the studio.
I'm fascinated by the research. So apparently 88% of us support donating, but only 4% of people actually do it.
Why? It's 4% of eligible people. So not everybody's eligible, obviously age limits and health limits, etc. Because people's lives are busy and there's a hell of a lot of demands on everybody's time and their headspace. It takes time out of your day. A whole blood donation doesn't take as much time as a plasma donation. But it's something you have to really think about.
It's not something that will just happen by osmosis. You actually have to book an appointment, turn up.
There's a lot of admin involved.
Less so once you've been doing it a few times.
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Chapter 2: What are the challenges in increasing plasma donations?
What's the age limit?
We haven't really got an upper age limit. It really depends on your health. After a certain age, we might ask you to have a medical assessment with one of our wonderful doctors who might say, yeah, you're good to go for another year or two. But we keep a really close eye on things like your immunoglobulin levels, your protein levels. We don't want to make people sick. Does blood...
sort of degenerate over over time as you get older so your blood is good your whole life pretty good yes um as i say we don't i think people get very disappointed if they've been a regular blood donor for most of their adult life and then suddenly we say here you go you're 70 off you go yeah no we don't we we say look let's just make sure that you're healthy enough to continue to donate for you not for the blood quality
Why is it that the plasma donations are up, but then the whole blood donations down? We collect whole blood to meet demand. Now, whole blood is the stuff that only lasts for 35 days. It's the red stuff that most people think of when they think about blood. It's red cells. And that's really used mainly in acute settings. So it's pretty high turnover, if you like.
So obviously people get transfusions in hospital if they're anemic or lost blood or whatever.
Yeah.
But plasma is one of those amazing things that can be made into 11 life saving products. And we manufacture it into a whole load of different products which can be used to treat kids with immunodeficiency disorders, to clotting disorders, to cancer, liver disease, a whole range of things. Demand for those products is up.
Oh, okay. Yeah, I see. Now, Sam, you're going to have to fix something for me. So I had this conversation on air last week about me not knowing what my blood type is. And apparently, and I can't get to the bottom of it. How do you know what your blood type is if you're a fully grown adult?
If you've never had need for a blood transfusion, if you've had babies... Oh, I don't recall anybody saying, oh, by the way, your OPOS. They might not have told you, but it'll be in your records.
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Chapter 3: What health factors affect eligibility for plasma donation?
I don't know.
if we find out because we take a sample from every donor before they donate and we test it and we make sure that therefore the blood is the right type that goes into the right bag that goes into the right patient at the end it takes literally a minute our donor relations team can you say there's a blood drive here at NZME why don't we get the what's my type girls they can come in and guys and they can do that in 30 seconds let's do it should we organise it do you want to come around and test all these fellas and take their blood do you want to do it Michael
You want to give some blood? Yeah, Michael's up for it. You've got another donor right there. Don't look at me, though. I'll pass out on you. Thank you very much, Sam. You're welcome. It's wonderful. Really appreciate your time. That's Sam Cliff, Chief Executive of New Zealand Blood Service. Well done, Michael. He's going to give some blood.