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Birmingham Blood Service Scheduled to Close

I really don't think the government understand how to make things efficient. Large national processing centres do not in themselves make things more efficient. There is, of course, a critical mass that matters.

In the case of the Birmingham National Blood Service Centre currently in Vincent Drive the plan is for processing, testing and cross matching to go to Bristol.

That means that local donations will go there and then be brought back to Birmingham.

The anti-natal service is to be moved to Sheffield.

Apart from the job implications (which is 210 local jobs lost) there really are questions about the merits of increasing the amount of transport required, both in terms of time and cost of transportation.

The service currently operates for 35 hospitals from Oswestry to Rugby, Stoke and Hereford.

This is an issue I will raise with the Health Minister.

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