SHOT - 2024 annual report; transfusion safety standards; my transfusion app; reporting to begin for UK Blood Services
2024 Annual SHOT Report is now available
Visit the SHOT Report page to view the full report, individual chapters, collated key insights from individual chapters, cases and figures from the report and supplementary information.
You can also order SHOT Report summaries from this page to distribute within your organisations. These are a great, digestible format to share the learning widely.
Transfusion Safety Standards
The SHOT Transfusion Safety Standards were published on 10 July 2025. These promote and ensure safe, effective transfusions by identifying risks, implementing strategies that create a safer environment for everyone involved, contributing to better patient outcomes, staff wellbeing and overall system safety.
The standards cover all aspects of the SHOT 10 steps of the transfusion pathway. These include the key elements evident from serial Annual SHOT Reports relating to the clinical and laboratory aspects in healthcare systems that help ensure safe transfusions.
My Transfusion app
After several months of dedicated collaboration and development, SHOT have officially launched the UK’s first blood transfusion information app for patients, My Transfusion. The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.
The app was developed in partnership with patient representatives and transfusion experts, and helps support informed decision-making by guiding users through:
- the transfusion journey
- potential risks and benefits
- alternatives to transfusion
My Transfusion is a trusted, accessible, and patient-centred resource and a meaningful step forward in providing patients with the information they need.
Please visit the My Transfusion app - information for healthcare professionals webpage to watch a promotional video highlighting why the app has been developed, and how it can be used to provide useful information to patients likely to receive a blood transfusion. Other resources on the webpage include:
- instructions for downloading the app
- promotional pack
- summary slide set
- screensaver
- leaflets
SHOT reporting to begin for UK Blood Services
We are pleased to announce that after many years of planning and collaboration, SHOT has introduced reporting in 4 categories for the UK Blood Services, which started on 5 August 2025.
Blood services can submit a report where an error has occurred in the diagnostic laboratories and issuing departments in the UK Blood Services that led to erroneous results given, or blood components issued to healthcare organisations with potential to cause harm to patients.
This development marks a significant step forward in strengthening haemovigilance monitoring, learning from, and improving transfusion safety across the system. The new reporting pathway will support a more complete picture of events across the blood supply chain and help identify opportunities for system-wide improvement and shared learning.
The initial blood services reporting categories are:
- IBCI-WCI (Incorrect Blood Component Issued – Wrong Component Issued)
- IBCI-SRNM (Incorrect Blood Component Issued – Specific Requirements Not Met)
- Anti-D immunoglobulin (Ig) errors for blood services
- ACE (Acknowledging Continuing Excellence)
These categories will be reviewed periodically, and additional categories will be added over time. It is important to note that the UK Blood Services will continue to submit reportable incidents to MHRA via SABRE as per current regulatory requirements.
Further details to facilitate reporting (including a specific Blood Services definitions document) are available here:
Serious Hazards of Transfusion team