Canadian Blood Services

Canadian Blood Services

The Canadian Blood Services Head Office building, 1800 Alta Vista, Ottawa, ON.
Motto	It's in you to give
Formation	1998
Type	Non-profit
Purpose	To manage Canada's national supply of blood, blood products and stem cells, and related services for all the provinces and territories (excluding Quebec). They also lead an integrated, interprovincial system for organ donation and transplantation for all of Canada.
Headquarters	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Region served	Canada
Key people	Dr. Graham D. Sher, CEO
Budget	~$5 million
Staff	4,300
Volunteers	1,700
Website	blood.ca/en

Canadian Blood Services is a national, nonprofit charitable organization that manages the blood supply in all provinces and territories of Canada, outside of Quebec, and oversees the OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network (formerly Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry) and is taking steps to increase transplant opportunities for patients by collecting and storing umbilical cord blood stem cells from Canadian donors. A separate organization, Héma-Québec, operates in the province of Quebec. A team of 4,300 staff and 17,000 volunteers help Canadian Blood Services operate 36 permanent collection sites, two bloodmobiles, eight OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network field sites and more than 22,000 donor clinics annually. It was created in 1998 as a successor to the Canadian Red Cross blood program and the Canadian Blood Agency, on recommendation of the Krever Commission. It took over the responsibilities of Canadian blood systems starting from September 26, 1998.

Canadian Blood Services collects approximately 850,000 units of blood annually and processes it into the components and products that are administered to thousands of patients each year through blood transfusions. In addition to donating whole blood, some locations also offer platelets and blood plasma donations.

Canadian Blood Services is a quasi-non-government organization (QuaNGO) as 100% of its funding comes from the provincial and territorial ministries of health, provincial and territorial ministers of health appoint directors to its board, and its functions are regulated federally by Health Canada.

On August 12, 2008, Canadian Blood Services announced that it would work with the Canadian Council for Donation and Transplantation to significantly improve organ and tissue donation and transplantation in Canada. Canadian Blood Services received government funding of $35 million over five years to proceed with this new mandate.

Canadian Blood Services is governed by an independent Board of Directors, who are recommended and appointed by provincial and territorial ministers of health. Current directors include: Ms. Leah Hollins (Chair), Robert H. Teskey, Rabbi Dr. Reuven P. Bulka, Dr. Christopher Carruthers, R. Wayne Gladstone, Dr. Gary Glavin, Mr. Henry J. Pankratz FCA, Ms. Elaine Sibson, Ms. Suromitra Sanatani, Mr. Dunbar Russel, The Honourable Denis Losier, Mr. Mike Shaw, and Mr. Craig Knight . The Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Blood Services is Dr. Graham Sher, and the Chief Supply Chain Officer is Ian Mumford.