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Guernsey blood donation service officials had to think quickly when a delivery of potentially lifesaving platelets was mistakenly sent to the island rather than Jersey.
The platelets - which are a short-dated blood product used to help bleeding patients in emergencies - was flown in error to Guernsey at 16:00 on Friday (19 February).
With no inter-island flights over the weekend, and no flights available from Southampton to either island until Monday afternoon, the Guernsey health team put in an urgent call to Condor, whose Clipper they fortunately managed to load up with the lifesaving goods just 10 minutes before departure.
Pictured: Both islands thanked Condor for the ferry provider's help in transferring the platelets to the correct island.
"As soon as we saw the platelets had arrived in error we also realised that there wouldn’t be another flight from Southampton until Monday afternoon to either island, and Jersey would be left without the necessary stock of platelets until late on Monday," Jacqui Wheatley, Head of Blood Transfusion and Blood Donor Services, explained.
"Some quick research informed us that the final Condor Clipper to Jersey had just arrived into Guernsey and hadn't yet departed. Although we haven’t used Condor for blood transportation since the Icelandic ash cloud, we were able to contact their freight manager, Karl Margetts, for assistance.
"Thanks to Karl's immediate response the platelets were loaded on board around 10 mins before departure and Jersey received the delivery later that evening."
Laboratory Manager at Jersey's Pathology Department, Julie Bellamy, expressed her gratitude on behalf of the island's health service.
"Thanks to the swift thinking of our Guernsey counterparts, the platelets ordered for Jersey arrived in good order and prevented us from having a shortage of platelets left on Island over the weekend.
"This is yet another great example of how our island laboratories work in collaboration for the good of our patients."
Both islands also extended their thanks Condor for their help.
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