There are two significant changes to the pathway which come into force on Monday 4 July.

Firstly, the care plan will contain a prescription page to be used instead of the generic intravenous fluid prescription chart.

Secondly, to comply with national directives, we now have a front page for documentation of patient consent to the transfusion. 

A member of the medical team will be required to document that the benefits and risks of transfusion have been explained and the patient gives consent. The patient does not need to sign the document themselves.

It's important the clinical staff administering the transfusion do not begin unless the consent section is signed (it is anticipated that the doctor will document consent when prescribing).

In an emergency, the transfusion can proceed without waiting for consent to be documented, though the patient must be informed afterwards if you have not been able to do so (e.g. if they were unconscious at the time).

To support the consent process and provide doctors with up-to-date transfusion information (including an estimate of infection risk), NHSBT leaflets will be widely available and can be downloaded from the transfusion pages, accessed via the blood transfusion icon in Clinical Tools from the front page of the intranet.

For peri-operative transfusions, patient consent to transfusion may still be documented as part of the current consent form procedure though patients must be informed post-operatively if they did receive blood products.