Transfusion medicine
Transfusion medicine handbook
The Transfusion Medicine Handbook is designed to assist hospital staff and other health professionals in modern Transfusion Medicine Practice.
Transfusion Medicine Handbook
About NZBS
New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) was formed in 1998 integrating all hospital-based transfusion services into a single national organisation. Since 2001 NZBS has managed the recruitment of blood donors, and the collection, processing and accreditation of all donated blood. This ensures that the demand for blood components used in the treatment of patients in all public and private hospitals is met.
As well as the collection of blood from donors at many fixed and mobile sites throughout the country, a wide range of activities are carried out at the Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland hub sites. These include recruitment of donors for high titre immune plasma (tetanus, hepatitis B and zoster immunoglobulin), recruitment of apheresis donors (for plasma, platelets, and granulocytes), and collection of haemopoietic progenitor cells. NZBS also carries out therapeutic plasma exchange, and therapeutic venesection.
Other functions of NZBS include specialist immunohaematology, histocompatibility testing for transplantation, skin and bone banking, production of serum eye drops and cryogenic storage of blood components. The national stock of rare blood, the national immunohaematology Reference Laboratory, the New Zealand Transplantation and Immunogenetics Laboratory (NZTIL), and the New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry (NZBMDR) and Organ Donation New Zealand (ODNZ) are all located at the NZBS Auckland centre.
NZBS is responsible for the collection and coordination of plasma supply to CSL Behring in Melbourne where New Zealand plasma is fractionated into plasma products, which NZBS then distributes to hospitals and health professionals.
NZBS maintains close liaison with public and private hospitals, general practitioners and midwives. Hospital transfusion committees operate in most major hospitals and NZBS is involved with these in an advisory capacity.
NZBS manages the blood banks in six of the country’s major hospitals, with the remainder being managed by Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ) or local community laboratory providers. The blood banks carry out various activities including the final compatibility checking and issuing of blood components and plasma products for transfusion.
National computer systems, eProgesa and eTraceline, link NZBS and all the main hospital blood banks. eProgesa and eTraceline manage the whole transfusion process with full traceability of each individual blood component from donation up to its issue. Information from eProgesa and eTraceline allows NZBS to monitor blood component usage and, together with hospitals, actively manage demand.
There are many elements to the transfusion process that need to be managed effectively to ensure blood components are used appropriately, and the relationship between NZBS and the hospitals is a key part of this. NZBS undertakes audits of clinical transfusion practice and blood use, monitors transfusion-related adverse events through a national Haemovigilance programme and provides a wide range of clinical, nursing, and technical oversight and support.
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Last updated: April 2023. Previously part of 111G122 – Transfusion Medicine Handbook 3rd Edition
NZBS Reference: 111G01301