Remit
The South East Transfusion Practitioners Group (SE TPG) is a working group whose primary aim is to support SE Transfusion Practitioners (TP) to meet guidelines and recommendations from relevant national bodies including the National Blood Transfusion Committee, the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) the British Society for Haematology, Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) and NHS England.
The primary focus is to improve patient safety and experience in relation to transfusion of blood components; blood products; and alternatives.
This will be achieved by
- Supporting TPs by sharing of good practice and provision of educational opportunities and resources, and by reducing professional isolation through the encouragement of networking and mutual support
- Providing educational information - where possible and relevant inviting external speakers
- Providing a forum to discuss implications of new guidelines
- Development and promotion of educational resources
- Reviewing National Comparative Audit of Blood Transfusion results
- Development of regional audits to provide benchmark data to guide future work and support through national audits
- Reviewing clinical incidents through reflection on annual SHOT benchmarking data
- Developing working groups where these are required
- Giving feedback from local and national study days, conferences and regional meetings and discussing implications for practice.
- Organising regional study days either alone or in collaboration with other groups e.g., Laboratory Manager User Groups, Haematology and Trauma Group, National Transfusion Practitioners Network
- Representing the voice of TPs at regional meetings
- Providing regional TP representation on national groups and feeding back to the South East Regional Transfusion Committee (SE RTC) as required.
Outcome measures
- Educational events held, and any educational resources developed, are positively evaluated by the target audience
- Actions set by any working groups organised to address specific issues are completed by agreed deadlines
- Key Performance Indicators of the constituent trusts are within or are moving towards defined target ranges
- South East data presented from the Blood Stock Management Scheme team show a similar or superior trend when compared to national figures
- Any regional transfusion audits are planned and run to a high standard, producing objective results and clear recommendations for practice
- Following audit, any locally or nationally developed recommendations are evaluated by individual trusts and are implemented if appropriate and practicable. To include data submitted twice a year to the NICE QS138 Quality Insights tool.
Membership
The SE TPG will consist of the following members from the SE TPG region:
- Two co-chairs or chair and deputy chair
- An NHSBT Patient Blood Management Practitioner
- An NHSBT Regional Transfusion Committee Administrator (RTC Admin) - to attend if available and appropriate
- All SE TPs
- All health care professionals (NHS & private providers) working in an equivalent role.
Term of Members
- The co-chairs will be in post for two years with the option to renew for a further two years
- Nominations for the posts will be sought from the SE TPG. If necessary, the post will be decided by voting
- If a co-chair wishes to step-down, they will be asked, where possible, to remain in post until a replacement has been appointed.
Working Arrangements
- The SE TPG will report to the SE RTC meetings
- The SE TPG will meet a minimum of three times per year, either virtually, or face to face
- The co-chairs and the RTC Admin will be responsible for booking the required meeting rooms
- Calendar invitations will be sent out in advance of the meeting (aiming for two months’ notice)
- An agenda, drawn up by the co-chairs, will be sent out within two weeks of the forthcoming meeting by the RTC Admin
- If neither co-chair can attend a meeting, a nominated representative will stand in
- There must be a minimum of a co-chair, or nominated representative, plus eight TPs present for the meeting to be quorate, if attendance is less than this a co-chair and the RTC Admin will liaise to assess whether to cancel the meeting with a minimum of four working-days’ notice
- Where attendance on the day of the meeting is lower than expected the meeting will continue, if possible, to avoid inconveniencing those that have attended and who have incurred travel expenses. If a meeting is not quorate, any decisions taken will be circulated to the wider group via e-mail for their agreement
- The meeting will be chaired by a co-chair (or, in their absence, a nominated representative)
- A minute taker will be assigned at each SE TPG meeting; the minutes of the meeting will be given to the meeting chair for approval within two weeks of the meeting
- Following approval, the minutes will be distributed by the RTC Admin to the SE TPG within one month of the meeting concerned
- Working groups for particular projects will be decided and evenly distributed between members.
The SE TPG Terms of Reference will be reviewed every two years.