WHY SURGEONS ARE USING PATIENTS’ OWN BLOOD

DOCTORS are calling for greater use of patients’ own blood during operations to prevent shortages that could lead to further delays.

The NHS typically uses 5,000 units of blood a day, but supplies of donated blood have fallen by at least 15 per cent since lockdown. Using a patient’s own blood during surgery — a process known as patient blood management — could save tens of thousands of units of blood, says Dr Andrew Klein, a consultant anaesthetist at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.

The technique involves taking a patient’s blood, ‘washing’ it, and then giving it back to them, and is advised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in all major surgery.

Currently, only around 50 per cent of hospitals in the UK use this technique, according to Dr Klein, and yet ‘it is essential that patients’ own blood is used where possible’.

‘With fewer people donating, we could be hit by blood shortages,’ he warns. ‘This would be a disaster after weeks of elective surgery being cancelled.

‘It would only take a week for donated blood supplies to fall to critical levels.’

Since introducing these techniques at his hospital, there has been a 50 per cent reduction in blood transfusion after routine cardiac surgery, says Dr Klein. However, its use across the NHS is ‘patchy’, he explains, because ‘some doctors are reluctant to adopt it and the equipment and drugs that are required can be expensive’.

Earlier this year, experts writing in the journal Anaesthesia and Analgesia demanded the procedure be used during the pandemic to protect blood supplies.

According to NHS Blood and Transplant, the NHS has eight days’ stock of blood. If it drops to six days’ supply, a warning is issued to hospitals to limit procedures that require blood transfusion. Donors are being encouraged to keep attending donor sessions, with extra safety measures in place.