Chatting
with the boss it seems that certain parts of the world use “tan-top” bottles as a safety measure in
blood transfusion.
It
is standard practice not to issue blood until (at least) two blood groups have been performed on a patient at
different times to get round the seemingly eternal problem of the possibility
of the wrong patient having been bled.
Apparently
in the “tan-top” scheme blood will
not be issued until a blood group has been performed on a tan-topped sample
bottle; such bottles are *only* available
from the blood transfusion department, and are only issued immediately prior to
transfusion.
Is
it a good idea? In theory yes. In practice… it is *if* there is time to fart around like this. It strikes me that this
idea would be rather impractical in any urgent case.
I
can’t help but think that it speaks volumes that I an’t find any reference to
the scheme on-line…
