Update notice: Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6 have been redrafted. Please refer to Change Notification 12 - 2010.
3.5 Donor age
Donors shall be between the ages of 17 and 65 years; i.e. from their seventeenth to sixty sixth birthday inclusive. Regular and returning donors may be allowed to donate beyond their 66th birthday with permission of the physician in the blood establishment, given annually.
It is normal practice to set an upper age limit of 60 years (up to 61st birthday) for first-time donors. However, older donors may be accepted at the discretion of the physician in the blood establishment.
3.6 Frequency of donation:
Whole Blood An interval of 16 weeks between donations of whole blood is reasonable. The minimum interval is 12 weeks. Normally, no more than three donations should be collected from a female donor during any 12-month period and four from a male donor.
Plasma and Plateletpheresis: A donor should not undergo a total of more than 24 plasma/plateletpheresis procedures per annum including not more than 12 leucapheresis procedures per annum. There should normally be a minimum of 2 weeks between plateletpheresis procedures. There should normally be a minimum of 48 hours between leucapheresis procedures and a donor should not normally undergo more than two procedures within a seven-day period.
Not more than 15 litres of plasma should be donated by one donor in a year.
Not more than 2.4 litres of plasma should be donated by one donor in any one-month period.
After a whole blood donation, or the loss of an equivalent number of red cells during an apheresis procedure, a donor should not normally donate plasma, platelets or leucocytes for a period of four weeks.
Double red cell donations: The interdonation interval for regular donation of double red cells by apheresis should not be less than 26 weeks (6 months) in the absence of iron supplementation. A shorter interval may be acceptable only if confirmation of iron-replete body stores can be accurately demonstrated and monitored.