National audits

National Comparative Audit of Blood Transfusion 

Audits conducted by the 10 Regional Transfusion Committees categorised by subject 

NBTC recommendations following the audit of the usage of group O RhD negative red cells, December 2008:

Stocks of group O RhD negative blood continue to be in short supply. Only 7% of the UK population are O RhD negative although this figure ranges from 6.7% - 8.3% depending on geographical location and ethnic mix (Stainsby and Murphy 2003). However, use of O RhD negative blood is persistently higher than would be expected from this figure. This national audit examined the reasons for the use of O RhD negative blood in 40 episodes from each participating hospital, each hospital's stockholding of O RhD negative blood and organisational data surrounding hospital characteristics and transfusion-related policies and procedures. Executive summary (pdf 52KB) Report (pdf 260KB).

The NBTC has revised the recommendations on the appropriate clinical usage of Group O RhD negative red cells: NBTC recommendations on the appropriate use of group 0 RhD negative red cells, April 2009 (pdf 84KB)