A statement from Dr Megan Rowley, Chair of the SHOT Steering Group:
The SHOT Transfusion Safety Standards and the My Transfusion app represent months of work by the SHOT Team, led by Dr Shruthi Narayan, the SHOT Medical Director, are to be launched along with the 2024 SHOT Annual Report on 11th July.
The My Transfusion app is a new and accessible way of providing patients with information on all aspects of transfusion practice and blood safety so they, and their families, can make an informed decision about receiving a transfusion. The engagement with patients and representatives in the development has been fantastic and SHOT is so grateful for their time and enthusiasm. The next challenge is getting the message out there to people who will benefit from this resource.
The SHOT Transfusion Safety Standards are based on insights from nearly 30 years of haemovigilance reporting across the UK as well as existing national standards, regulations and evidence- based guidance. It has always been a challenge for hospitals to respond to the many recommendations in each successive Annual SHOT Report, so these standards aim to ‘improve patient safety, reduce errors, and support a consistent, high-quality approach to transfusion practice’. They provide a stable and consistent framework for organisations where blood is transfused to support healthcare staff to deliver on the recommendation from the Infected Blood Inquiry that ‘…all NHS organisations across the UK have a mechanism in place for implementing recommendations of Serious Hazard of Transfusion (SHOT) reports, which should be professionally mandated, and for monitoring such implementation.’
I look forward to working with SHOT and the SHOT Steering and Expert Groups over the coming year to disseminate these important messages and work collaboratively across all 4 UK nations to turn the IBI recommendations into practice for the benefit of all of our patients.
SHOT Transfusion Safety Standards My Transfusion app