Contingency Planning and Blood Shortage Emergency Planning

For hospital use only

Information on emergency planning and the management of blood shortages issued to hospitals.

• NBTC red cell shortage plan - August 2016
• NBTC platelet shortage plan - August 2016
• The appropriate use of group O RhD negative red cells (PDF)
  

 

Bank Holiday arrangements

Stock management of the platelets over bank holidays is challenging because we need to build stock when donors are available, to carry us through periods when collection is reduced.  This is most challenging with platelets due to the short shelf life.

To manage and maintain stocks effectively, we need to ensure that older stock is used ahead of fresher stock to avoid units expiring and creating pressures later.

Requests for stock platelets may not be met with the most recently collected units. This helps us to conserve these more recently collected units to ensure supply is maintained.