Dear Colleagues,
SHOT would like to highlight an area where urgent action may be required to improve patient safety, therefore we are issuing the attached Safety Notice regarding emergency preparedness. Please bring this notice to the attention of your hospital transfusion team or committee and escalate to your Trust/Health board emergency preparedness and risk management teams.
This notice has been issued to share learning following an incident reported to SHOT exposing the fragility of our services which increasingly depend on electrical and electronic equipment. The staff members who faced this situation coped well in challenging circumstances, with no adverse patient outcomes. We would like to commend their actions; help identify potential risks and highlight areas where insights and enhancements can be gained.
This Safety notice has been formulated with expert input from the National Blood Transfusion Committee Emergency Working Group, the MHRA and other key stakeholders, however it is for guidance only.
During these very difficult times it is even more important to ensure our emergency procedures are robust and safe. The SHOT team would like to thank all reporters for their continued vigilance and actions to improve patient safety.
Kind Regards,
The SHOT Team