Storage of Blood Products and Wastage

Written by Craig Webster on .

Storage and Wastage of Blood

It is essential that blood and blood products are stored correctly to minimise any adverse incidents from occurring:

  • Blood must only be stored in authorised blood refrigerators
  • Blood transfusions should be commenced no longer than 30 minutes from the time the unit was taken from the Blood fridge. 
  • Fresh Frozen plasma must be used within 4 hours of thawing if stored at room temeparture or within 24 hours if stored in an authorised blood fridge.
  • Platelets should be kept agitated in Blood Bank until ready for use.

Avoidable wastage of blood and blood products will generate a 'Wastage Report' for the ward to complete and return to Blood Bank.  This is monitored by the Hospital Transfusion Committee.

Sample Storage

For patients with no recent transfusion history, the samples are stored for 7 days.  For patients transfused within the last 3 months, the samples are kept for 72 hours.  Pre-operative samples where the operation date is greater than one week in the future plasma will be separated and stored frozen for two months providing the patient has not been transfused within the last 3 months.

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Location of Laboratories

Patient Information

General Information

The laboratories at Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital and Solihull Hospital form part of the services provided by University Hospitals Birmingham and are UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) accredited to the ISO 15189:2012 standard. For a list of accredited tests and other information please visit the UKAS website using the following link: https://www.ukas.com/find-an-organisation/

  • Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull Hospital pathology laboratories are a UKAS accredited medical laboratory No.8217
  • United Kingdom Health Security Agency laboratory is a UKAS accredited medical laboratory No.8213

Tests not appearing on the UKAS Schedule of Accreditation currently remain outside of our scope of accreditation. However, these tests have been validated to the same high standard as accredited tests and are performed by the same trained and competent staff.

For further test information, please visit the test database: http://www.heftpathology.com/frontpage/test-database.html.

Protection of personal information - Laboratory Medicine comply with the Trust Data Protection policy and have procedures in place to allow the Directorate and its employees to comply with the Data Protection act  1998 and associated best practice and guidance.

For further information contact Louise Fallon, Quality Manager, 0121 424 1235

UKAS HEFT