Blood shortage emergency planning

Information on emergency planning and the management of blood shortages issued to hospitals (published on the JPAC website)

• NBTC red cell shortage plan
• NBTC platelet shortage plan
• The appropriate use of group O RhD negative red cells
• Emergency preparedness, resilience and response guidance for hospital transfusion teams

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.