Heather Clarke

Heather started her career in the NHS in Sheffield in 1991 as a lab assistant then progressed to become a HCPC registered Biomedical Scientist in Haematology and Blood Transfusion after obtaining a BSc in Biomedical Sciences in 1998. She then progressed to a Senior Biomedical Scientist in Blood Transfusion in 2003 after obtaining an MSc in Biomedical Sciences. In 2014 she moved to Derby as a Transfusion Practitioner and in 2019 became the Transfusion Laboratory Manager there until joining NHSBT in her current role as an RCI Development Lead in the Transfusion 2024 team in September 2024.

She is a member of the Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) working expert group. She is also the author of the Handling and Storage Errors chapter and contributes to the Laboratory Errors chapter of the Annual SHOT Report.

Heather is passionate about transfusion safety and patient care and brings NHS hospital transfusion knowledge with her to the team. Part of her role will be working with hospital transfusion laboratories and NHSBT laboratories to develop electronic requesting and reporting of samples referred to NHSBT laboratories for analysis. 

Outside of work Heather enjoys socialising with friends and family, walking her two dogs, keeping fit and exploring new places in the UK and abroad.