What NHS Blood Donation does

NHS Blood Donation is the public-facing operating brand of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), a Special Health Authority within the UK National Health Service that manages voluntary collection of blood, plasma, platelets, stem cells, tissue, and cord blood across England. The service traces its origins to the National Blood Transfusion Service established in 1946 and was reorganised into its current form on 1 October 2005 following the merger of the National Blood Service with UK Transplant. It operates 25 fixed donor centres spread across English cities including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Newcastle, and others, supplemented by mobile community sessions held at church halls, workplaces, and universities. Approximately 6,000 donations are collected each day to meet NHS hospital demand, with platelets (7-day shelf life) requiring continuous replenishment and plasma products supporting medicines that treat over 50 conditions.

The service is delivered through a community-led go-to-market model that recruits healthy donors aged 17-65 via the blood.co.uk website, the NHS Give Blood mobile app (iOS and Android), a dedicated platelet donation microsite (platelets.blood.co.uk), the my.blood.co.uk donor portal, social media, and partnerships with media outlets such as ITV2's 'Blood Squad' campaign. Underlying technology is the NHS Digital Service infrastructure supporting appointment booking, donor records, blood stock management, and Queue-it virtual queuing to absorb traffic spikes from media-driven demand surges. Products include the NHS Give Blood App, the Online Account/Donor Digital Service, the Platelet Donation Website, in-person donation sessions, plasma collection, and the NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry. R&D activity extends into gene editing, cellular therapies, and clinical studies such as the PlaNet-2 platelet-transfusion trial in premature babies.

NHS Blood Donation is entirely publicly funded through NHS England commissioned services and is accountable to the UK Department of Health and Social Care. There is no commercial pricing: blood, plasma, and platelet products are provided to NHS hospitals free of direct charge, and donors receive no payment. As a public sector entity, it holds no venture capital, private equity, or public shareholders, and its geographic scope is restricted to England (with Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland served by separate national services). Leadership is headed by Chief Executive Betsy Bassis, appointed in 2019.

Name

NHS Blood Donation

Legal name

NHS Blood and Transplant

Website

https://blood.co.uk

Company type

Public

Founded year

1946

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

NHS Blood Donation operates England-wide voluntary collection of blood, plasma, platelets, stem cells, and tissue through 25 fixed donor centres plus mobile venues, serving NHS hospitals and patients with approximately 6,000 daily donations under a publicly funded, no-charge model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Blood Donation Services

NAICS

Blood and Organ Banks (621991)

SIC

Services-Hospitals (8060)

akta.pro primary industry

Blood, Organ & Tissue Donation Organizations (BPAGACAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Plasma Collection & Donor Services (Plasmapheresis Centers) (HLAIAHAH), Blood Bank, Transfusion Medicine & Immunohematology (HLAHAAAH), Cell & Tissue Banking (biobanking, cord blood/tissue) (HLAAAGAE), Transfusion Medicine & Immunohematology (Blood Bank) (HLAFAMAG)

Keywords

• Blood donation services
• Public health services
• Plasma donation
• Platelet donation
• Stem cell registry

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices24 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Public Health Funding: NHS Blood Donation is funded entirely through NHS government appropriations. As part of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), the service receives public funding to collect, test, process, and distribute blood products to NHS hospitals throughout England. No commercial revenue is generated from donors or patients.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

NHS Blood Donation collects, tests, and supplies blood, plasma, and platelet products to NHS hospitals throughout England. The service operates through 25 fixed donor centres and mobile community venues, supported by the NHS Give Blood mobile app and online donor portal for appointment booking and donor management. It also runs the NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry, enabling donor-patient matching for stem cell transplants.

Product overview

NHS Blood Donation operates primarily as a service portfolio rather than a unified software platform. The core offerings include blood, plasma, and platelet donation services delivered through a network of fixed donor centres and mobile community sessions. Digital touchpoints consist of the NHS Give Blood mobile app (iOS/Android), the donor-facing web portal (my.blood.co.uk), and a dedicated platelet donation website (platelets.blood.co.uk). The Stem Cell Donor Registry operates as a related but distinct service. These digital products are primarily consumer-facing tools for appointment management and donor engagement rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• NHS Give Blood App: Mobile application for booking and managing blood donation appointments
• Give Platelets

Products and services

• NHS Give Blood App Mobile application for iOS and Android that lets registered donors browse and book appointments in real time, view donation history and eligibility, find nearby donation venues using location services, and access a digital donor card. Intended for volunteer blood, plasma, and platelet donors in England.
• Donor Digital Service (Online Account) Donor-facing web portal enabling registration, appointment booking, viewing donation history, checking eligibility, updating personal details, and accessing messages and notifications. Used by prospective and existing blood, plasma, and platelet donors in England.
• Blood Donation Sessions In-person blood donation appointments conducted at 25 fixed donor centres across England (including Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Gloucester, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, multiple London sites, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Poole, Sheffield, Southampton, Stoke) and at mobile community venues. Provided for volunteer donors aged 17-65.
• Plasma Donation Plasma donation service available at three dedicated Plasma Donor Centres (Birmingham, Reading, Twickenham). Donated plasma contains antibodies used to manufacture medicines for over 50 different conditions, helping approximately 17,000 people per year. Provided for eligible volunteer donors in England.
• Platelet Donation Service Dedicated platelet donation programme offered at 25 donor centres across England, supported by a dedicated website (platelets.blood.co.uk). Includes eligibility assessment, appointment booking, and information about the donation process. One platelet donation can help up to 3 adults or 12 children, with 69% of platelet donations helping cancer patients. Provided for eligible volunteer donors in England.
• NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry Registry enabling individuals to join as potential stem cell donors, with matching processes to connect donors with patients requiring stem cell transplants. Operated as a related but distinct service within NHS Blood and Transplant.

Quantifiable outcome

• 6,000 donations needed per day to meet NHS patient needs
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Public Health England (PHE)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublic Health England conducts anonymous surveys on behalf of NHS Blood and Transplant to help inform personalised donor selection criteria research. Surveys assess donor behaviour and acceptability of sexual behaviour questions to support a more individualised risk assessment approach.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Australian Red Cross Lifeblood: Australian Red Cross Lifeblood is the national statutory blood-collection operator for Australia, running a nationwide voluntary-donor network supplying hospitals with blood, plasma, and platelets — structurally one of the closest international peers to NHS Blood Donation in mandate, scale, and public-good mission.
• OneBlood: OneBlood is a large non-profit regional blood bank serving the southeastern United States, with a comparable portfolio of whole blood, apheresis platelets, and plasma collection supplying hospital partners. Relevant peer for donor-centre economics and hospital logistics.
• Vitalant: Vitalant is one of the largest non-profit blood collection organisations in the United States, operating a nationwide network of donor centres supplying hospitals with blood, plasma, and platelets. Direct operating-model peer with comparable product breadth and hospital-supply focus.
• Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS): SNBTS is the equivalent public-sector blood, plasma, and stem cell collection service for Scotland, operating under NHS National Services Scotland with a near-identical donor-recruitment, testing, and hospital-supply model — making it the closest functional peer to NHS Blood Donation.
• Canadian Blood Services: Canadian Blood Services is a national, non-profit, publicly-funded blood operator with exclusive regulatory mandate to collect and supply blood products across Canada (outside Quebec). Closest international comparator to NHSBT given its similar statutory monopoly, donor-recruitment model, and product portfolio spanning blood, plasma, platelets, and stem cells.
• Welsh Blood Service: The Welsh Blood Service operates the same NHS-branded voluntary donor model across Wales, collecting whole blood, platelets, and plasma for Welsh hospitals. Structurally near-identical to NHS Blood Donation, with the key difference being its smaller geographic scope.
• American Red Cross (Biomedical Services): The American Red Cross Biomedical Services division collects roughly 40% of the US blood supply across a national network of donor centres — directly comparable in operating model, regulatory environment, and scale to NHS Blood Donation, albeit as a non-profit charity rather than a state entity.
• Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service: NIBTS is the devolved public-sector blood collection service for Northern Ireland, run within Health and Social Care (HSC) with a comparable donor-centre and mobile-collection operating model. The smallest of the four UK national services but functionally equivalent.

Broad incumbents

• CSL Plasma: CSL Plasma is the world's largest plasma-collection network, operating donor centres across the US, Europe, and Asia. While CSL operates as a commercial paid-plasma model rather than a public voluntary service, it is a key comparator for plasma-donor operations and the source-side of plasma-derived medicines.
• Octapharma: Octapharma operates one of the world's largest plasma-collection networks (Octapharma Plasma) and manufactures plasma-derived therapies. Adjacent to NHSBT's plasma operations as a strategic counterparty for self-sufficiency discussions and a vertical-comparison benchmark for plasma economics.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/GiveBloodNHS
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/NHSGiveBlood
• Facebookfacebook.com/givebloodnhs
• Instagraminstagram.com/givebloodnhs
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nhs-blood-donation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about NHS Blood Donation