Blood donations ceased in Stawell in 2005 with residents forced to travel to Horsham or Ballarat if they wanted to continue to donate.

With the nation's stocks of blood and plasma running critically low as hospitals tackle a pandemic-driven backlog and a decline in donors, people want to see access given to regional donors.

But when the Stawell Times-News asked Australian Red Cross Lifeblood what would be needed for a donor centre to return they said it would not be happening.

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"Australia is a very big country and it's not possible, or necessary, for us to collect blood everywhere," a Lifeblood spokesperson said.

"Our existing centres have the capacity to collect all the blood Australia needs, and seasonal call outs help encourage those donors living nearby to a donor centre to come in and fill any available appointments.

"It's also worth noting the supply of blood to all areas of Australia is not impacted by the location of our donor centres; all blood is supplied to hospitals via our Processing Centres in the major capital cities.

"We know not everyone can donate blood due to location and there are other ways to help, such as spreading the importance of blood donation on social media, signing up to be an organ donor, or even volunteering for the Australian Red Cross."

Stawell resident Keith Mitchell completed 157 blood donations, most of which happened in Stawell, and said he wanted to see people from Stawell donating more often.

Mr Mitchell first donated in 1972 when there was a Stawell donation centre at the emergency department at Stawell Hospital, but it became harder to donate when the facilities were closed.

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When the donor service was open in Stawell, Mr Mitchell said it was hugely popular, including one record-breaking night when 74 donations were recorded.

"Back then there was lots of donors and there was a ticketing system and you got your number and if you didn't get in early you had to sit around and wait because there was so many people," he said.

"I went to Horsham for the first time in 2005, and we had a group of four and we used to all go up together and take our own car up once a year each year.

"It would make a great difference, because a lot of people just said it was too hard with the travel."

In 2005 the Stawell donor centre closed and then the Horsham Blood Bank closed in August 2014, before a mobile service started in March 2015.

"One of the reasons it closed down here was because there was a lot of volunteers and they said if something went wrong with what one of the volunteers did, then they could be sued and the Red Cross they said they needed to have their own staff working," Mr Mitchell said.

"At Horsham in the end they couldn't get enough people, so now there it is just a mobile van that comes up there every so often."

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