Only about three percent of people in Bermuda donate blood — half the numbers found in other developed countries, the House of Assembly was told yesterday.

And the situation places extra pressure on existing donors as well putting lives at risk, according to Minister of Health Zane DeSilva.

In addressing the House, Mr DeSilva said: "About 40 to 50 units of blood are needed in Bermuda every week to manage therapeutic uses, planned surgery and trauma.

"Without blood donations, no elective or emergency surgery could take place on the Island, and people needing therapeutic blood donations would have to travel overseas for treatment."

Mr DeSilva said donated blood was required foremost to improve the lives of people with painful and debilitating conditions.

He made a special appeal for more people to give blood. "As we come up to the holiday season, the hospital has a particular need for donors.

Many existing donors go away over Christmas and New Year, there are public holidays which impact donor clinics, and people are generally very busy."

Noting that late Health Minister Nelson Bascome had overcome his fear of needles to donate blood, Mr DeSilva told the House that blood donation only takes about half an hour, and has its own special parking at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Dr Betsie Lombard, medical director of the Blood Transfusion Service, confirmed that Bermuda has a low donor count: "The number where you can generally feel safe is six percent," she said.

"But it's important to say we have a loyal base of donors. Unfortunately, with our transient population, people do leave; it's just because of the nature of the Island, along with the ageing of our population."

She added that the Island lost 35 percent of its donors after the "mad cow" BSE scare of 1993, when Bermuda adopted the US rules barring all donors who had lived in the UK or Europe during the 1990s.

"It's not a value judgment. Those are just the rules we're stuck with. The only way to increase our numbers is to get more eligible people to donate."

The donor centre is on the hospital's first floor, with clinics from 8.30am to 3pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.