‘We'll Be Accused of Bleeding Them From Both Ends’: Paying for the Gift of Blood

Abstract

The Second World War saw tremendous advances in the therapeutic use of blood and blood derivatives. In the postwar years these blood products would drive many of the major advances in clinical medicine. And yet the question that most occupied the minds of the blood services and in particular the overarching Red Cross divisions that had responsibility for them, was how could these services be funded in a sustainable manner. Drawing on archival sources along with oral history interviews, this paper focuses on the efforts of the Victorian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, and Australian Red Cross blood transfusion services more generally, to establish a sustainable funding source in the postwar era.