Island's blood transfusion service 'progressing towards compliance' says external audit

The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service has highlighted a 'list of deficiencies' within the current provision

The Island's blood transfusion service is said to be 'progressing towards compliance' with blood safety and quality regulations.

An external audit of the service has been carried out by the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS), which visited the Isle of Man last year.

It looked at the services provided by Manx Care at Westmoreland Road and the laboratories at Noble's Hospital to assess their quality, safety and effectiveness against the standards set out in the 2005 Blood Safety and Quality Regulations.

Following the audit, it's recorded 23 items in a 'list of deficiencies' - three of which are considered to be major.

These included a lack of authorised Standard Operating Procedures for the taking of blood from donors, a lack of privacy during confidential interviews, and 'weak' incident management.

In its conclusions, the NIBTS said while the site was considered to be progressing towards compliance, given the magnitude of the actions required to be taken, achieving that will be dependent on the application of appropriate resource, knowledge of good practice being improved throughout the organisation and a commitment to fully implement an appropriate quality management system.

Manx Care says it's accepted all the findings of the audit and remains committed to improving both the Hospital Blood Bank and Blood Establishment through its action plans.

Around 1,700 people donate 1,250 units of blood on the Isle of Man each year through the Blood Transfusion Service.

It hopes implementing the recommendations will create a better patient and service user experience.