Public doubts raised by a charity scandal have worsened the blood shortage in Beijing, said a senior official from the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center.

The reputation of the Red Cross Society of China was severely tarnished by a scandal in June involving a young woman named Guo Meimei who flaunted her luxurious life on the Internet. Guo's claim that she was the general manager of an organization that is connected with the Red Cross Society of China set off a heated discussion over the possibility that donations to the society had been misused.

Liu Jiang, director of the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center, said the incident has "a direct influence" on the blood shortage.

A worker from the blood center surnamed Liang confirmed the influence of the scandal, saying it has severely dampened blood donors' enthusiasm.

"I won't donate blood anymore," said Liang Jie, a 31-year-old woman from Huaian of Jiangsu province, who had donated blood twice. "It takes a long time to establish trust, but it only takes a second to destroy it."

Statistics from the Beijing municipal health bureau show the number of blood donors in the city dropped by more than 10 percent in July and August.

The health bureau said it now can only collect about 1,500 bags of blood a day, reducing the city's blood supplies to a third of the ideal amount.

"We collect only about 50 bags of blood a day now," said Liu Ruixue, a medical worker at a donation site in Xidan, a busy shopping area in Beijing. "The number of donors declined sharply after the scandal."

She recalled that once a passerby said angrily to her: "The money from selling donated blood to patients has been embezzled by you people working at blood centers."

The distrust has found its way to the Internet.

"Am I insane to donate blood to the center for free and then let it sell my blood at a high price?" said a netizen named "yurentingge7" on weibo.com, China's most popular micro-blogging website.

A netizen named "free little frost", from East China's Zhejiang province, said that nobody will make a donation to an organization without transparency.

The weather has also been blamed for the shortage.

Liu, from the blood center, said the many rainy days this summer have deterred people from going out to donate blood.

In addition, university students and migrant workers, two major sources of blood donors, often return to their hometowns in summer, aggravating the blood shortage.

As a result, many hospitals have had to postpone surgeries. Some have even told patients to persuade their relatives or friends to donate blood before they will operate on them.

To deal with the shortage, the Beijing health bureau has set up six more collection sites in crowded areas, and the blood center has also extended working hours to attract donors.

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