Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

The emerging COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed healthcare resources worldwide, and for transfusion services this could potentially result in rapid imbalance between supply and demand due to a severe shortage of blood donors. This may result in insufficient blood components to meet every patient's needs resulting in difficult decisions about which patients with major bleeding do and do not receive active transfusion support. This document, which was prepared on behalf of the National Blood Transfusion Committee in England, provides a framework and triage tool to guide the allocation of blood for patients with massive haemorrhage during severe blood shortage. Its goal is to provide blood transfusions in an ethical, fair, and transparent way to ensure that the greatest number of life years are saved. It is based on an evidence- and ethics-based Canadian framework, and would become operational where demand for blood greatly exceeds supply, and where all measures to manage supply and demand have been exhausted. The guidance complements existing national shortage plans for red cells and platelets.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/bjh.16736

Type

Journal article

Journal

Br J Haematol

Publication Date

11/2020

Volume

191

Pages

340 - 346

Keywords

National Blood Transfusion Committee, blood shortage, guidance, massive bleeding, triage, Betacoronavirus, Blood Banks, Blood Donors, Blood Transfusion, Bloodless Medical and Surgical Procedures, COVID-19, Coronavirus Infections, Disaster Planning, Health Care Rationing, Hemorrhage, Humans, Pandemics, Pneumonia, Viral, SARS-CoV-2, Triage, United Kingdom