title: The National Blood Service. Supporting better blood transfusion.
abstract: The National Blood Service (NBS) is an integral part of the National Health Service that provides blood, blood components, blood products and tissues from fifteen blood centres to England and North Wales. Each year, the NBS collects tests, processes, stores and issues approximately 2.3 million blood donations. The service also undertakes research into blood safety, provides clinical advice to hospital staff and supports hospital transfusion practitioners. Rebecca Gerrard describes some of the initiatives to improve blood transfusion practices, including monitoring of the serious hazards of transfusion, bench marking schemes and the roles of blood transfusion liaison (BTL) nurses.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gerrard
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking / Q000458:organization & administration; D001771:Blood Banks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000451:nursing / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009720:Nurse Clinicians / Q000458:organization & administration; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012106:Research / Q000458:organization & administration; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D065227:Transfusion Reaction; D006113:United Kingdom