Welcome to the South West RTC
NEWS May 2013 Arrivals and departures
Welcome back to Vikki Chandler-Vizard returning to the TP role at Poole (Clare Thompson is staying on in the transfusion team there). Thank you, farewell and good luck to Peter Thompson who has retired from NHSBT as Transfusion Liaison Nurse here in the South West.
New RTC Chair
Dr Patrick Roberts has stood down as Chair of the South West RTC after a full and productive term in office, and is replaced by Dr Sarah Allford, Consultant Haematologist and HTC Chair at Taunton. Many thanks for all your hard work Patrick, and welcome on board Sarah.
South West blood and platelet issues
Component issues for 2012/13 in the south west region continue to compare favourably against the national picture: red cells issues dropped by 4.7% from 2011/12, nationally this decreased by just 2.9%; and in the SW platelet issues dropped by 7%, whilst nationally this increased by 1%. Thank you for your ongoing vigilance and good work in this endeavour.
Right blood, right patient, right time
The Royal College of Nursing guidance document for improving transfusion practice called Right blood, right patient, right time was revised in April 2013 and can be downloaded from the RCN website.
Appropriate use resources
The ‘Safe and Appropriate Use of Blood Components’ section of the Hospitals & Science website has recently been updated and contains many useful resources.
TE toolkit
Our colleagues in the North West RTC have put together a really useful looking toolkit of documents for implementation of Thromboelastography/Thromboelastometry.
BSMS road shows This year the Blood Stocks Management Scheme road shows are focusing on the use of emergency group O RhD negative blood. For dates and further details see the BSMS website.
RTC meeting
Another successful South West RTC meeting on 9th May with 36 attendees representing a good range of hospitals in the region, presentations will be posted in this site shortly. Thanks to you all for your ongoing support of these meetings.
South West Blood Conservation group
The regional blood conservation group now has a page on this website.
National Comparative Audit (NCA) - planned audit programme
| Audit | Scheduled start | Scheduled report |
| Medical Use of Red Cells | In progress | Part 1: reported
Part 2: to be confirmed |
| Audit of the Labelling of Blood Samples for Transfusion | Complete | Complete |
| Audit of the Use of Anti-D | May-June 2013 | To be confirmed |
A retrospective audit of the use of blood in adult cardiac surgery is also being conducted in cardiac centres.
'QuickAudits' an automated clinical audit reporting system has been launched. Future National Comparative Audits will have an associated QuickAudit tool for follow up re-audit.
NCA newsletter (pdf 364KB)
RTC funding for educational meetings
Limited funds are available from the RTC budget to help staff with the costs of attending conferences, study days etc. General rules and guidance on funding for educational events are outlined in this information sheet (pdf 4KB).
We aim to make your local RTC site the first place you think of looking online for transfusion related information. It is divided into these areas:
If you have material you would like published on the site please contact Alister Jones or Jackie McMahon the South West RTC website representatives. If you have ideas about other information you would like to see on the RTC site please contact Sheena Cameron, Website Development Manager.
