Supporters of an independent blood agency in New Brunswick say it's unreasonable for Canadian Blood Services to suggest there isn't a market for the province's excess blood and blood products.
Business leader Gerry Pond, one of several experts who advised Quispamsis-based Growth Strategies on the possibility of establishing a stand-alone blood system in the province, says New Brunswick hasn't been getting credit from the national agency for its excellent donor system and the extra blood it produces.
Pond, along with Saint John physicians Andrea Garland and Sean Dolan and Dan Connolly, a former blood services executive, are urging the New Brunswick government to consider breaking away from Canadian Blood Services in favour of an independent, New Brunswick blood system.
But the idea would be more feasible if "Hema NB" could sell its excess blood - perhaps as much as 20,000 units a year - to CBS, an idea the national agency has not embraced.
Currently, roughly 10,000 units a year of excess New Brunswick blood and blood products are traded to other provinces by CBS, mostly to Ontario.
"We understand it's a closed system but to say 'no market for the blood' is a bit much when in fact we have never had to destroy the surplus blood in New Brunswick - it always has been taken somewhere else," Pond said during a meeting with the editorial board of the Telegraph-Journal.
"There is a market. What CBS really is saying is that if we go independent, they won't buy our blood, which is a bit threatening for the people of Ontario who are consuming it. That would be an example, in my opinion, of CBS's model of fear, uncertainty and doubt that they use to treat taxpayer commentary."
The national blood agency is closing its production facility in Saint John in favour of a consolidated Maritime operation scheduled to open in Dartmouth in 2013.
The Growth Strategies report, which was presented to Health Minister Madeleine Dubé, says that a stand-alone New Brunswick agency would have the potential to generate $6 million a year from the export of excess red blood cells by its third year of operation. That's based on the belief that a New Brunswick agency could generate almost 20,000 excess units of red blood cells that would be sold at a price of $300 per unit.
Canadian Blood Services spokeswoman Amanda Cullen said it sounds like the promoters are recommending selling blood to other agencies in a 'for-profit' model."
"There is no market for exporting New Brunswick blood products for profit," she said, explaining that CBS and Héma-Québec would be unlikely to need to buy blood from New Brunswick.
The Growth Strategies report based its views on the experiences of a Nebraska-based blood bank that sells surplus blood to other blood banks and hospitals in the United States.
Pond, the former president of NBTel, is bringing his business expertise to the blood services issue and is urging politicians to view the province's blood system as a public asset.
"The fact is we do have surplus blood flowing from the province, and there could be more of it with the proper approach to the donor base," he says. "This is a big asset for us and in the current context it is being lost because no credit is given."
Pond said the supporters of a stand-alone system are not suggesting a capitalist model. "We're not looking for a for-profit model, we're looking for an effective model."
Laurent Paul Ménard, communications director for Héma-Québec, the only stand-alone blood system in Canada, said the provincial agency does have an agreement with CBS to share blood, if necessary.
"Most of the time we supply our own needs," Ménard said in an interview Tuesday.
"But we do have a mutual agreement with CBS by which if we ever experience a shortage or if CBS experiences a shortage, we will help each other. It's an agreement between our two organizations."
He said Héma-Québec was created in very short order in 1998, after the Canadian Red Cross decided to get out of the blood business following the tainted blood scandal.
"The decision was taken in March of 1998 and we were up and running by September 1998," Ménard said.
Dubé is promising a decision this fall.
The province is considering three options: staying with CBS; setting up a provincial blood service; or looking to partner with Héma-Québec.
Ménard said there are no discussions at the moment between New Brunswick and Héma-Québec.
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