Blood component wastage

The focus on blood component wastage is underpinned by:

• the National Blood Authority (NBA) wastage reduction strategy
• the Australian Health Ministers Conference (2010) National Stewardship statement
• the Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Healthcare National Standards (Blood Management Standard).

Victorian red cell waste has reduced significantly since 2014 and has been consistently lower than national wastage rates. This success reflects the collaboration, engagement, and support of Victorian health and transfusion services.

Blood Matters has expanded on the success of the red blood cell wastage project and have extended waste reduction efforts to all fresh blood components.

The NBA have comprehensive blood product management information on their website, including National Guidance for the Management of Red Blood Cell Inventory, which provides advice for health services/transfusion laboratories to assist with reviewing their red blood cell inventory.

Constant vigilance is required to ensure that our donor's precious gift is not wasted.

Waste reduction strategies

The following principles and approaches have been identified as crucial to the continued reduction of blood and blood product waste in Victoria:

• effective inventory management to reduce time expiry wastage
• sharing blood fridge compliance data between health services and pathology providers
• timely movement of blood products between health services to prevent time expiry wastage
• reducing the time blood can be kept following a crossmatch
• compliance with transportation requirements for blood components
• increasing the use of visual prompts in blood fridges, freezers and platelet agitators. For example, to highlight short expiry dates
• simplifying procedures, production of and compliance with a maximum surgical blood ordering schedule (MSBOS)
• regular review of stock inventory levels
• ongoing collaboration between health and pathology services.

'STOP the waste' festive campaign

The 'STOP the waste' festive campaign began in 2015-16 to decrease RBC wastage over the festive period (November to February) when there had traditionally been a decrease in services across health organisations (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic).

While a reduction in services over the festive period has not been evident in recent years, the 'STOP the waste' festive campaign continues to keep blood wastage minimisation at the forefront of minds, and celebrates the donor's gift over this period. It serves as a timely reminder to monitor and respond to changes in health service activity that may impact blood use and to adjust stock or staff responsibilities accordingly.

Throughout the year, stock levels should be monitored, and inventory adjusted as necessary. Of particular importance is reviewing O RhD negative RBC inventory as O RhD positive RBC for emergency use is implemented across health services, in line with the National Statement for the Emergency Use of Group O RBC. More information is available on Blood Matters Emergency use of group O RBC.

Donated blood is a precious gift, and we all need to do our part to protect and manage this valuable resource.

Let’s celebrate the donor’s precious gift this festive season and beyond. Your continued support of the 'STOP the waste' campaign is appreciated.

Useful resources

Festive campaign checklists

Available for download are 2 checklists to prompt transfusion laboratories and health services to look at how blood use may be impacted over this period. This includes:

• One for metropolitan/larger health services

• One for smaller/rural health services

Festive campaign infographic

There is also a festive campaign infographic to be displayed in clinical areas and the transfusion laboratory to remind staff to be vigilant in reducing waste over this period.

Please liaise with your transfusion laboratory regarding any anticipated changes to activity to adjust inventory accordingly.

We encourage you to take the time to inform Lifeblood of any anticipated changes to your blood inventory and usage, to assist them to adjust donor collections as required. This will help to ensure sufficiency of the blood supply over the festive season.

Other resources and tools

Previous festive campaign results

Festive period red blood cell (RBC) wastage 2014-15 to 2024-25

Victorian festive season red blood cells (RBC) discards 2014-15 to 2024-25

Victorian festive season red blood cells (RBC) issues and discards 2014-15 to 2024-25

References

• National Blood Authority (2022) National Blood Management Improvement Strategy 2018-24
• Australian Health Ministers’ Conference (2010) Statement on National Stewardship Expectations for the Supply of Blood and Blood Products
• Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Healthcare (2021) National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (second edition) 2021 Blood Management Standard
• National Blood Authority Inventory management for blood and blood products.

Current national and state blood component wastage

If you are unable to view the below charts, this data is also available in a tabular format.

Red blood cell (RBC) wastage

The current national wastage target for red blood cells is: < 2.0-3.0% (annual use dependent)

Platelet wastage

The current national wastage target for platelets is: <12.0-18.0% (annual use dependent).

(Chart: Platelet wastage: Victorian and National data financial year to date)

Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) wastage

The current national wastage target for FFP is: <10.0%

(Chart: FFP wastage: Victorian and National data financial year to date)

Cryoprecipitate (cryo) wastage

There is currently no national wastage target for cryoprecipitate

(Chart: cryo wastage: Victorian and National data financial year to date)

Downloads