Patient blood management

We carry out national audits focused on important areas of transfusion practice in Scotland.

Well-conducted audits are a recognised tool for supporting health care improvement and our audits are an important asset for improving clinical transfusion practice.

How we identify audit topics

Individuals with an interest in transfusion practice in Scotland can identify topics for audit.

Our audit group assess audit proposals to check their relevance to Hospital Transfusion Committees across NHSScotland and to see how they align with the aims and objectives of SNBTS Patient Services.

We prioritise audit proposals based on a range of criteria: 

• Direct impact on patient care
• Relevance to the core purpose and mission statement of SNBTS
• Relevance to SNBTS Transfusion Team and Patient Services objectives
• Wide variation in practice
• Potential for improvement
• Related to complaints or clinical incidents

Our audit lifecycle

Our audits each follow a number of stages:

• Planning
• Set-up
• Data collection
• Analysis and reporting
• Dissemination and action

If time and resources permit we may have more than one audit happening at different stages of the audit lifecycle.

Once a topic enters the audit lifecycle it will continue to completion unless a major challenge or issue renders it unfeasible or redundant.

Other Transfusion Audit Programmes

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) have delivered a number of audits via the National Comparative Audit of Blood Transfusion (NCABT).

Although these audits focus on blood use and transfusion in England and North Wales, NCABT encourage participation from hospitals in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

We liaise with NCABT and promote participation in Scotland where appropriate.

Previous audits undertaken by NCABT can be found on the NHSBT website.