Alberta

The Canadian Blood Services in Saskatoon has seen a decrease in donations this year. They’re behind their target for 2016 and suggest it’s due to competition with a private plasma clinic. Stu Gooden has the details. The clinic, located on Emerson Avenue, is collecting 126 fewer units of blood per month. They’ve also seen about […]

CEO of CBS speaks out against private-paid plasma clinics. Confirms that they harm the voluntary donor base in Saskatchewan where the private clinic set-up. PLEASE READ CBC’s national news story here.

Plasma can be used to make treatments for patients with medical condition like bleeding disorders. The donation process takes about an hour and a half. A company called Canadian Plasma Resources offers $25 per donation. The company recently opened the clinic in Saskatoon, and is expanding within Canada. Advocates against the practice want the company […]

Canada’s tainted blood scandal in the 1980s is a distant memory for some and beyond memory for others. That is exactly why we need to be reminded of it and ensure it does not happen again. More than three decades ago about 30,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and hepatitis C as a result of […]

Canada’s donor-based blood service should not be taken over by an American-style, for-profit industry. That’s the warning being sounded across the nation by the BloodWatch advocacy group. Its spokesperson, Kat Lanteigne, brought the message to Lethbridge this week, at a meeting organized by Friends of Medicare. While Alberta has taken no action to safeguard Canada’s […]

The lives of Canadians will be at risk if for-profit companies that pay people to give blood are allowed to operate, a Medicine Hat audience was told Tuesday night. Private plasma clinics will not benefit Albertans but will create competition for blood plasma which we will not have access to, says Kat Lanteigne of http://www.BloodWatch.org. Canadian […]

Private blood brokers are trying to secure a stake in Canada’s blood system in order to make a profit off of our blood plasma and it is putting Canadian lives at risk. Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR) was recently banned from operating in Ontario (Quebec has banned the sale of blood and plasma since 1994). CPR […]

Stop the export of Canadian blood for profit. Every policy has a story. This is our Canadian story. Watch our video. 

Introducing a paid-donor system for blood products could compromise Canada’s blood supply and is not justified, a group of physicians says. The chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare said she was shocked by the news that a company in Ontario was planning to pay for plasma. “The critical issue here is opening up our blood […]

Canadian Blood Services (CBS) aren’t doing their job, so it’s time the Alberta government steps in. Canadian Blood Services are in the news again. You might have seen the concerns raised over the private pay-for-plasma clinic opening in Saskatchewan. Well now CBS are going one step further, suggesting that “competition” may require them to also […]

The debate over paid plasma can be complex, as is the conversation about what impact it could have on supply. A pay-for-plasma clinic recently opened in Saskatoon where people are given $25 credit cards in exchange for a donation, and there have been conversations across the country over the implications of these kinds of clinics. […]

The conversation about pay-for-plasma clinics is intensifying in Canada, and here in Alberta. Right now, Canadians donate their blood and plasma voluntarily through Canadian Blood Services – they do not receive money for it. Canadian Blood Services is a not-for-profit government-funded agency that oversees the country’s blood supply. But a private pay-for-plasma company, Canadian Plasma […]

The CEO of a company that opened a controversial pay-for-plasma clinic in Saskatchewan a month ago hopes to expand to Alberta in the next four years, but Alberta’s health minister says she’s not excited about the idea of monetary incentives for blood products. Read the full article on the Meridian Booster web site.

The conversation in Alberta comes after B.C.’s health minister recently said he’s open to allowing a pay-for-plasma clinic in B.C. and Saskatchewan’s health minister said he supports the new clinic in that province. Ontario and Quebec are the only provinces to have banned compensated plasma donations. A private pay-for-plasma clinic has existed in Winnipeg for […]

Members of a national lobby group will travel to Edmonton next week to urge Alberta’s health minister to ban private, for-profit plasma clinics. Kat Lanteigne, co-Founder of BloodWatch.org, wants to see Alberta follow in Ontario’s footsteps and pass legislation that bans payment for plasma donors. She said she’ll be meeting with the health minister’s office […]

Following a controversial launch in Saskatchewan, the CEO of a pay-for-plasma clinic is looking to expand to Alberta. But the province’s health boss isn’t thrilled with idea. Canadian Plasma Resources CEO Barzin Bahardoust said his company is considering long-term expansion to Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba after opening a Saskatoon clinic in February that adds $25 […]