Blood transfusion is open for the receipt and handling of specimens from 07:00hrs to 02:00hrs. Routine opening hours are between 09:00hrs to 17:15hrs. Samples and requests for blood products should be received in the laboratory at least 48h before transfusions. Laboratory staff are on site until 02:00hrs.
Out of hours, i.e. between 02:00hrs and 07:00hrs the laboratory is covered by a single handed MLSO for both Chemistry and Haematology (available through switchboard) primarily to provide a service for emergency and essential work only! Routine work will not be processed during this period.
All requests for Blood and Blood products must be telephoned.
Urgent requests for Blood or Blood products must be accompanied by the pink transfusion request form.
Please call the Hospital Transfusion Laboratory (Extention: 4329/4320) or duty Biomedical Scientist for all urgent requests, giving as much notice as possible so staff can organise their workload and assign appropriate priority. A full incubation time crossmatch should take approximately 40 minutes from receipt within the laboratory. In very urgent cases the incubation time can be reduced to 20 minutes to exclude ABO incompatibility and to allow blood to be issued (the tests will be reviewed to provide a retrospective full incubation time crossmatch).
In extremely urgent critical situations where less than 20 minutes is available, non-crossmatched O Rh negative blood is available for immediate use from refrigerators at:
North Wing issue fridge 2 units
Maternity / Labour suite 2 units *
*Note Hospital Transfusion Laboratory must be immediately notified when the units are used so that stores can be maintained, audit trails of use are available and a record of the recipient should be made in the patient's hospital notes.
Crossmatched blood will be reserved for the day it is requested and will be automatically returned back to stock on the 2nd day if unused (period may be extended by contacting Hospital Transfusion Laboratory in special circumstances).
Note an internal SOP (Standard of Procedure) agreed through the Hospital Transfusion Committee is available from Hospital Transfusion Laboratory.
Laboratory staff in Hospital Transfusion Laboratory will NOT PROCESS IMPROPERLY LABELLED SAMPLES in accordance with legal requirements. The minimum data set required is:
• Full name of patient (surname, forename).
• Hospital number.
• Date of birth.
• Name and signature of the requesting doctor.
• Blood transfusion form must be fully completed.
A crossmatch tube (7.5mL) is required for "Group & Save" and crossmatch.
Patient details must be handwritten in accordance with National Guidelines (ADDRESSOGRAPH MUST NOT BE USED).
For the "unknown patient" both the sample and request form must be labelled with a unique hospital number.
It is vital that the Hospital Transfusion Laboratory is informed immediately of any suspected transfusion reaction and the transfusion with the suspected pack should be immediately stopped.
There is a standard protocol to be followed for any suspected transfusion reaction. All wards have a copy of this document together with appropriate forms to be filled in and returned to the Hospital Transfusion Laboratory with the offending blood or blood products. This will include symptoms, blood pack data and time of event.
The following samples will be required for testing:
Donor pack causing the reaction.
Post transfusion EDTA 7.5mL crossmatch tube.
First MSU post reaction.
Telephone Hospital Transfusion Laboratory or duty BMS to alert the laboratory and to prioritise investigations.
A written copy of the Blood Transfusion Reaction Document is available on the wards. Alternatively contact Hospital Transfusion Laboratory if a copy is required.
The department fully participates in National External Quality Assurance Schemes (List of schemes available on request or via hospital intranet IP address:
