Daily COVID-19 digest

Join us for a live Q&A and conversation on diversity, equity and inclusion:  

Please join us on Wednesday, July 8 at 1 p.m. ET for the next live event with our CEO. To give us plenty of time to have discussions on important issues that are top of mind for employees, we are doing things a little differently this time around. We are extending the Q&A to 1.5 hours, with the first half of the event dedicated to conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion. Graham will be joined by Andrew Pateman and Rick Prinzen to discuss how the program is evolving, hear your questions and provide more information on the anonymous assessment that will be sent to employees to help us understand what we are doing well and where we can improve. The second half of our live event will be focused on broader operational questions and concerns that are front of mind for employees.

Your outlook invite to the event will be updated on Monday with the meeting link and attendee help guide. We look forward to seeing you all there and encourage you in the meantime to learn more about the diversity, equity and inclusion portion of our event on Connect.

How we are meeting an increased demand for blood:

We have been tracking and responding to an increased demand for blood from hospitals across the country. For several weeks, we’ve seen demand increase to levels beyond what we experienced pre-pandemic — in particular, for O-negative blood. To meet the demand, we needed to look for ways to expand our collections capacity while following our physical distancing and safety requirements. With the support, dedication and adaptability of our frontline teams, we’ve expanded our mobile collections, extended our hours, redeployed staff and in some cases added collection days in our fixed donor centres. Thank you to the many employees who contributed to building the plans, and those on the frontlines who are doing the great work to collect, process, test and distribute the needed units.

To get more donors through our doors, we’ve amped up donor recruitment activities, including NCC phone calls and messages, recruitment emails, radio ads and targeted media outreach in locations where we continue to have unfilled appointments. In June, donors responded well and have enabled us to increase collections and keep pace with the rising demand. With the support of our frontline teams, we will continue our efforts throughout the summer — a traditionally challenging time for meeting collections targets even in normal circumstances.

Question of the day: How will our wellness checks change now that the Atlantic provinces are “bubbled?”

Effective today, provincial governments from the four Atlantic provinces — New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, have implemented a regional travel “bubble” between their borders. This means that residents of Atlantic Canada crossing through the Atlantic provinces will no longer have to isolate for 14 days.

To align with provincial regulations and advice from public health, we have modified the wellness check questionnaire at our Atlantic collection events. Effective today, donors will now be eligible to donate if they have travelled between the four Atlantic provinces and meet other eligibility requirements. Employees, volunteers and contractors will also be allowed to enter our sites if they have travelled between the “bubbled” provinces and meet other entry requirements.

We will continue to closely monitor as government restrictions start to lift across the country. As provincial measures shift, we will ensure that our eligibility requirements in those regions are aligned with regulations and public health advice and keep employees updated on how these changes affect you and our donors.

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About the daily digest  

This daily digest will highlight the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content like articles and videos to remind us that what we do matters.  Things are moving quickly, so you can expect to hear from us daily. No access to email? No problem — all this information and more can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.    

Click here to read past editions of the daily digest.

Have questions? Check out blood.ca/employees or email us at communications@blood.ca