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Hamilton paid-plasma clinic run by same company that reported deaths
Posted: March 27, 2026
(March 26, 2026) By: Joann Fketich, The Hamilton Spectator
Mayor says “safety and ethical concerns” remain regarding pay-for-plasma.
Hamilton’s paid-plasma collection centre is run by the same for-profit company that recently reported the deaths of two donors in Winnipeg.
Health Canada says no adverse reactions have been reported at the Hamilton site since it opened just over one year ago at 2255 Barton St. E.
But an ongoing Health Canada investigation into the Winnipeg deaths has renewed long-standing objections to paying for plasma raised by Hamilton city council that were ignored by Spanish health-care company Grifols and Canadian Blood Services (CBS).
Mayor Andrea Horwath called the donor deaths “extremely concerning” but said there isn’t anything the city can do about the Hamilton site because it falls under provincial and federal jurisdiction. “The safety and ethical concerns we raised remain,” Horwath said in a statement.
Donor deaths
The Winnipeg deaths were reported on Oct. 25 and Jan. 30 by Grifols. The company is mandated to tell Health Canada about deaths or serious adverse reactions that happen within 72 hours of donating plasma.
To date, Health Canada says the ongoing review has not identified a link between the deaths and plasma donation. A third Winnipeg death was reported on June 4, 2018 but Health Canada concluded there was no connection in that case.
Grifols said it also did internal investigations into the donor deaths.
“Plasma donation is a low-risk procedure with thousands of people around the world safely donating every day,” Grifols said in a statement. “Based on the information available at this time, we have no reason to believe that there is a correlation between the donors’ passing and plasma donation.”
Grifols did not answer questions about how many people go to the Hamilton centre or how many donations they make. The company pays between $30 to $120 per plasma donation with additional bonus compensation opportunities.
“Every donor undergoes an extensive health history evaluation and physical examination before being deemed eligible to donate,” Grifols said. “We strive to operate under strict operational procedures at the highest standard.”
Hamilton clinic inspections
The Hamilton centre was inspected by Health Canada before it opened on March 10, 2025 to ensure it was in compliance with blood regulations, but it has not been checked again since. Health Canada says the frequency of inspections is based on risk.
A report card online about the inspection on Feb. 3, 2025 shows the clinic was found to be in compliance despite a number of observed issues:
• Insufficiencies with the document control or records management system.
• Inadequacies with identifying, documenting and tracking all critical equipment or supplies.
• Operating procedures were not always followed or kept up to date, and some were incomplete.
• The program for staff orientation or training was not sufficient.
• Expiry dates of critical supplies were not observed.
• Records were not always accurate, complete, legible, indelible or readily retrievable.
The report says corrective actions were requested but it’s not clear if Health Canada checked to ensure they were done.
“Canada’s blood plasma supply is widely recognized as one of the safest in the world, thanks to rigorous screening, testing, and monitoring,” Health Canada said in a statement. “Studies have shown that the safety of plasma and plasma products is the same regardless of whether plasma is collected voluntarily or paid for.”
Four of about 40 Grifols centres in Canada are listed as non-compliant by Health Canada, but none of them are in Ontario or Manitoba.
In addition, Grifols updated its rules on March 9 to require at least 48 hours between consecutive plasma donations. A pre-existing limit of no more than two donations in seven days also remains in place.
The Ontario Health Coalition has asked questions about how often donations are happening, particularly for vulnerable populations.
“We don’t know what the long-term impacts are for donating that frequently,” said Sara Labelle, co-chair of the coalition’s committee to protect Ontario’s blood system. “They’re incentivizing it.”
Paid-plasma bans
Hamilton’s centre is located between Nash Road North and the Red Hill Valley Parkway in Ward 5, which had one of the city’s lowest average total household incomes in 2020. City council made its objections clear by declaring Hamilton a “No paid plasma zone” but did not have the jurisdiction to enforce the ban.
“I remain disappointed that decision was disregarded when the clinic opened here,” Horwath said.
However, provinces have the jurisdiction to decide whether donors are paid, Health Canada said.
Ontario already has a paid-plasma ban that Horwath — as the leader of the NDP at the time — played a role in getting passed in 2014. But CBS declared itself exempt and claimed Grifols was acting as its agent when opening sites in Hamilton, Cambridge, Etobicoke, North York and Whitby.
The Ontario Health Coalition is now calling on Premier Doug Ford’s government to use the law to end pay-for-plasma in the province.
“We want that to be enforced,” Labelle said. “There is no clause in the legislation in Ontario that allows Grifols to operate here.”
Ontario’s health minister is monitoring the decisions made by CBS, said spokesperson Ema Popovic in a statement.
The coalition also points out that the Grifols sites break a key recommendation against paid donation in the 1997 report of the Krever Commission in response to the tainted blood scandal in the 1980s that left more than 30,000 Canadians infected with HIV and hepatitis C.
“It’s so deeply troubling,” said Kat Lanteigne, former executive director of BloodWatch. “These populations are so vulnerable.”
CBS said in a statement that the agreement with Grifols in 2022 is an important part of increasing the country’s plasma sufficiency for immunoglobulins, which is medication with rising demand that thousands of Canadians rely on. It says the donation centres abide by stringent regulations and “serious health events are exceedingly rare.”
