Customer satisfaction survey

The Spring survey for 2025 reflects the views of 157 (64 per cent) hospital transfusion laboratory managers at directly supplied hospitals in England.

Why this survey is important

It provides us with an opportunity to receive actionable feedback from transfusion laboratory managers, and for us to focus improvement initiatives where they are needed most.

The survey is managed by the Hospital Customer Services team. It's held twice a year and we ask the lab managers to comment on our services for the previous six months. 

During these months for the Spring survey some RCI services were reprovisioned, the reprovisioning of Hospital Services at the Southampton centre continued due to the partial closure of the centre, and there were continuing Pre-Amber and Amber alerts on some blood components. 

The results 

We're committed to acting on what the lab managers said: here's our action plans

What the Lab Managers said about Components

  • There is good communication
  • There is flexibility accommodating orders
  • The availability of components was good, despite the Pre-Amber and Amber alerts
  • Occasionally some labs receive red cell components with creased or misaligned barcodes which causes problems when the units are being scanned

What we're doing

We have instructed Hospital Services staff to make sure all units issued to hospitals are checked for damaged or misaligned labels.

What the Lab Managers said about Delivery

  • Drivers are professional, courteous and communication is good
  • The NHSBT transport service is excellent
  • Some deliveries did not arrive at the right location in their hospital
  • Transport boxes are not being collected, especially by courier drivers, employed on NHSBT’s behalf

What we're doing

We are updating our hospital delivery instructions to include using what3words to give more precise hospital locations.

Our Transport team are working closely with our courier partner to improve the collection of transport boxes. This is being done through regular reviews and driver audits.

What the Lab Managers said about RCI reporting

  • Staff are polite and communication is excellent
  • The advice provided by RCI is helpful
  • Reports are timely
  • The lab managers are interested in the proposal to introduce electronic requesting and reporting which will deliver improvements in turnaround times and reduce reporting errors

What we're doing

We are continuing to work with LIMS providers to develop electronic requesting and reporting, for RCI reports.

We are recruiting and training RCI staff to help us increase capacity and reduce turnaround times.

Accessible version of the summary infographic 

Infographic summarising the average satisfaction Spring 2025 survey scores for the provision of NHS Blood and Transplant services. The survey was conducted by Hospital Customer Services between 4 to 25 March 2025.

The following information gives the average scores for each service metric surveyed:

NHSBT overall average score 8.9 out of 10.

Component fulfilment overall average score 9.2 out of 10.

OBOS and ordering process 9.3 out of 10.

Component availability 9 out of 10.

Service provided by Hospital Services 9.2 out of 10.

Range, specification and quality of blood components 9.2 out of 10.

Delivery Services average score 8.9 out of 10.

NHSBT drivers 9.4 out of 10.

Courier drivers 8.3 out of 10.

Routine deliveries 9 out of 10.

Ad-hoc deliveries 8.8 out of 10.

Emergency deliveries 9.1 out of 10

Diagnostic Services, overall average score 8.7 out of 10.

Overall service provided by RCI 8.6 out of 10.

RCI turnaround times 8.3 out of 10.

RCI reporting 8.7 out of 10.

RCI referral process 8.8 out of 10.

Service provided by Molecular Diagnostics 8.5 out of 10.

Service provided by Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics 9 out of 10.

Customer Support, overall average score 9.1 out of 10.

Customer Service support 9.2 out of 10.

Clinical support 9.2 out of 10.

Service provided by Blood Stocks Management Scheme 9.3 out of 10.

Easy to do business with NHSBT 8.9 out of 10