Heart of England Pathology Directorate

Requests for Blood and Blood Products

• Trust Blood Transfusion Policies and Procedures (Internal Users Only)
• Handbook for Blood Transfusion (internal users only)

The Trust Blood Transfusion Policies and Procedures document should be read by anybody involved in the transfusion / administration of blood and blood products. Information on how to make a request can be found within the document.

Blood Bank will only accept requests for blood and blood products that are made either on ICE request forms or Blood Transfusion request forms (addressograph labels accepted on request form ONLY) which adhere to the above mentioned Policy.

Specimen tubes and request forms must be adequately and clearly labelled with:-

1. Patient's full name
2. Hospital number
3. Ward / location
4. Date of Birth and address
5. Signature of the person taking the sample (or phlebotomists number)

Samples required are 1 x 7 ml EDTA sample at Heartlands, and 2 x 7 ml EDTA samples at Solihull (one is stored at Heartlands to cover out of hours).

It is the responsibility of the M.O. to advise Blood Bank of any special blood product requirements.

Sample Storage

For patients with no recent transfusion history, the samples are stored for 14 days. For patients transfused within the last 3 months, the samples are kept for 48 hours. Samples taken at BPRE, POAC and OPAC clinics or long term gynae requests will be stored frozen for 2 months.

Add on Tests

If you have already made a Blood Bank request but wish to add on additional tests please contact the Blood Bank for advice on extension 40705/40706 (BHH), 44527 (Sol) or 49290 (GHH).