Approaches to improving blood safety
| Area for improvement | Aspects for improvement | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| Haemovigilance | Improve recognition and reporting of TTIs | All healthcare professionals |
| Better awareness and greater ease of reporting processes | All healthcare professionals and managers | |
| Donor screening | Review and revision of donor questionnaires to ensure they remain effective in identifying higher risk potential donors. Where possible, questions should be evidenced based and non-discriminatory | SaBTO, blood services, patient groups |
| New testing procedures and technologies must be evaluated promptly and, where appropriate, implemented in a timely fashion. However, changing established procedures and introducing new technologies might not only be costly, but could also lead to errors | SaBTO, Blood services, commissioners | |
| Horizon scanning | Some emerging infections have been missed and others incorrectly identified as a risk to blood safety; incorrect predictions do not invalidate the need for, and importance of, horizon scanning | Epidemiologists, microbiologists |
| Prescribe blood only if required | Some patients undergo transfusions when other options are indicated (eg iron or erythropoietin prescription) | Healthcare professionals |
| Patient awareness | Recipients must be informed that, although blood, its components and products are safe, they are not free from risk and their right to decline a transfusion respected. Guidelines have been issued for ensuring that patients are given full information and are able to give valid informed consent.34 Patient groups will have a key role in ensuring the messaging is appropriate and available | Healthcare professionals, patients and patient groups |
| Oversight | Effective regulation and resources to monitor safety, review current practice, and review and react to new and emerging infections and provide regular feedback to healthcare professionals | Department of Health, regulators, professional bodies |
SaBTO = Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs.