test donor blood for HIV -- the virus which causes AIDS, King Edward VII Memorial Hospital executive director Mr. Hume Martin said yesterday.

And he confirmed that the new kits which were bumped off a flight in Atlanta last week arrived yesterday.

Because of the shortage of HIV-tested blood, patients due for routine surgery last week and this week were advised to put it off in case complications arose and a blood transfusion was needed.

Staff pathologist Dr. Keith Cunningham said on Sunday he was down to his last 50 pints of HIV-tested blood which was only made up of the common blood groups and would only be used in the event of an emergency.

Dr. Cunningham said the hospital had been out of the kits since last Wednesday because of the delay in the new ones arriving and the fact more than twice the normal amount of blood was used in March due to three patients being admitted with ruptured aneurysms.

After meeting with hospital management yesterday morning, Mr. Martin said it was decided to order one extra kit a month.

In the past, two kits were ordered a month with each kit being able to test roughly 100 people's blood, Mr. Martin said.

He said the hospital was unable to order anymore kits at a time because they have a limited shelf life.

"We can't rely on the airlines to always get the kits here on time and decided to take the precaution of bringing in three kits a month instead of two,'' Mr. Martin said.

He added that medical supplies are not usually given priority by air carriers unless they are labelled "urgent'' which the KEMH kits were not.

Although the last blood found to be contaminated with the HIV virus was more than three years ago, Dr. Cunningham said he would still advise patients to put off having surgery in cases where it is not a matter of life or death.

"You just can't take that chance (of contracting AIDS),'' he said.

Dr. Cunningham said on Sunday he had enough blood for at least 10 emergency operations.