Patients face blood transfusion delays at MUHC
Cancer patients in need of blood transfusions have been facing delays because of a “grave shortage” of medical technologists at the Mcgill University Health Centre, the Gazette has learned.
The MUHC, which runs one of the largest blood banks in the province, issued an internal memo to staff last month warning that it was in “a situation of a service breakdown that is expected to slow down the analyses and distribution of blood products.”
“Urgent requests for patients who are bleeding and for others in urgent need of blood will be prioritized as usual, but other patients — including those hospitalized and those in a treatment centre (the day hospital, the Cedars Cancer Centre) — may have to wait before receiving their transfusions.”
As a consequence, nurses were advised to limit the number of calls to the blood bank, “especially to ask if (their blood) products are ready, unless there is an emergency.”
Other measures included no transfusions for patients with immune thrombocytopenia (a rare autoimmune disorder, in which a person's blood doesn't clot properly) “unless there is significant bleeding.”
“Despite these measures, if the situation in the blood bank deteriorates, it may be necessary to postpone certain procedures and surgeries involving a high hemorrhagic risk in order to preserve our ability to respond to emergencies,” the memo added.
Since the memo was sent on April 8, there have been no cancellations in surgery, an MUHC official said on Monday.
`FRAGILE'
“There is a range in a break in services, from a complete shutdown to a reduction of services,” Anne-claire Fournier said. “The latter was the case when the memo was sent, and service functioned by priority. At the moment, there is no break in service, but the situation is fragile and requires close monitoring.
“No surgeries have been cancelled, and there have been no significant delays in blood transfusions for cancer patients or patients in the day hospital, although this situation continues to be closely monitored,” Fournier added. “Like many other laboratories in the province, we are facing a shortage of medical laboratory technologists, which is particularly precarious for staff in blood banks.”
She confirmed that the MUHC “has rearranged some services, is reviewing current transfusion medicine practices and making major efforts at recruitment and retention.”
A year ago, Dr. Lucie Opatrny, the MUHC'S executive director, acknowledged that a backlog of more than 20,000 lab tests — with some biological samples stuffed in freezers since September 2021 — was unacceptable and the problem needed to be fixed.
“There's a backlog in the whole province in laboratories. Here (at the MUHC), it was 20,000 samples out of eight million, so that's like (0.25) per cent. First of all, they all need to be done (on time), and even if it's just (0.25 per cent), we need to look at that and see how to do better with everything.”
An MUHC source, who did not want their name published in order to discuss the issue candidly, said “we are a trauma centre, a high-risk pregnancy centre. We must be the biggest user of blood in the province.”
The MUHC, Quebec's largest hospital network, is also beset by a shortage of nurses, which has contributed to chronic overcrowding of its emergency rooms.