7 June 2019 (Friday) - Transfusion News Update

The nice people at “Transfusion News” sent their update today. The first article made me think.

“Hematology and oncology outpatients often receive RBC transfusions to maintain critical hemoglobin (Hb) thresholds, but the impact of these transfusions on quality of life is not well understood”

Really?

7 June 2019 (Friday) - Healthcare Science Update

The Healthcare Science Bulletin appeared in my in-box this morning. There was news of the publication of the Interim NHS People Plan, talk of a £2 million boost for system-wide leadership development… lots of big words…

I subscribed to the mailing list purely because I felt it would be the sort of thing that would impress an assessor if ever my CPD activities are to be assessed. But (in all honesty) I don’t see this as having any relevance to me whatsoever.

Interestingly the update called for contributions. Perhaps I should stop whinging and contribute something? In years gone by I would certainly have done so…

6 June 2019 (Thursday) - BTLP Excercise

Well… it was time to do another BTLP-TACT exercise…

I was presented with one case – sample number 38991 George Yosef; a twenty-two year old chap with beta thalassaemia requiring a two-unit transfusion.

The chap’s blood group was indeterminate. It looked like A Pos, but with the control well coming up positive, all bets were off.

The antibody screen was negative in well 2.

I requested antibody panels. The IAT and enzyme panels were positive in cells 3 and 5. This is consistent with anti-E.

So… indeterminate blood group with anti-E for a routine transfusion. In reality I would refer to the NBS. However this isn’t reality. I have to second-guess what the software wants me to do. I decided to select E-Neg O Neg units because… well, were this an emergency case that’s what I would do.

I got the green light…