NDP looking to ban paid plasma donations in Sask.

At almost any time, adults in Saskatoon can walk into the pay-for-plasma clinic and receive anywhere from $20 to $80 in gift cards for a donation – but the Sask. NDP wants to shut that down.

NDP leader Ryan Meili says the private clinic is taking away from the pool of volunteer donors for Canadian Blood Services (CBS) in Saskatoon.

“They’re causing a big drain on public donations – voluntary donations – that are needed within Canadian Blood Services. That should be enough to say ‘let’s stop this.'”

CBS has said previously that it’s finding it more difficult to attract donors in that area, especially those between the ages of 17 and 24, whose blood products tend to be healthier.

Meili went on to say the practice of paying for donations is ethically wrong and tends to target vulnerable peoples.

“In a province which has high levels of poverty, instead of dealing with poverty and helping people get out of poverty we’ve got a government that says ‘well, at least they can sell their blood.'”

Saskatchewan is one of the few provinces which allows donors to be paid for blood and plasma but Meili argues that’s not the approach Saskatchewan should be taking.

He said the NDP is looking at a private member’s bill to ban payment for those fluids in the province, which would likely shut down the private clinic, Canadian Plasma Resources.

Plasma is used for transfusions in Canada, but it’s also used to make life-saving drugs for patients with immune system deficiencies.

Kat Lanteigne with the advocacy group Blood Watch said Canadian Blood Services can provide enough plasma for transfusions but is nowhere near being self-sufficient when it comes to plasma needed for the drugs.

According to a Health Canada report, Canada can only produce 17 per cent of the plasma for the drugs which are needed. For the rest, Canada buys the drugs from the U.S.

Lanteigne said the private clinic in Saskatoon not only takes donors away from CBS, but the plasma which is collected doesn’t go into the Canadian system – it’s then sold to a company in Germany.

“Every single bag that is being collected at that private facility is being sold on the international market, so we’re actually getting less plasma here in Saskatchewan and not more.”

Lanteigne also said the private clinic is making it more expensive for CBS in Saskatoon because it’s having to spend more to advertise in order to compete against the pay clinic.

Lanteigne and Blood Watch are supporting the NDP’s effort to ban the practice.

Government Reaction

In an email, the provincial government said that it supported the private clinic when it opened in 2016 and it still does.

The government said private plasma collection has been shown to be safe, pointing to a report from Health Canada released in May of last year.

That report also said there was no compelling evidence that pay clinics reduce the volunteer donor pool, but the report cautioned that more research was needed on that subject.