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 the National Blood Transfusion Committee’s Patient Blood Management (PBM) recommendations (2014), the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) blood transfusion guidance (NG 24 2015) and related Quality Standard (QS138 2016), the British Standards in Haematology (BSH) transfusion guidelines and Transfusion 2024 - five year plan supporting patient care across the NHS (2020).
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 encouragement of networking and mutual support.
• Providing educational information - where possible and relevant invite external speakers
• Providing a forum to discuss implications of new guidelines
• Development and promotion of educational resources
• Review 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, London and South East Haematology and Trauma Group; the National TPG.
• Representing the voice of TPs at the Regional meetings
• Providing regional TP representation on national groups and feeding back to the regional group as required
Outcome measures
The following measures will be completed in line with section A: Patient Blood Management in Transfusion 2024
• 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 (KPI) 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:
• Chair and Co-Chair
• An NHSBT Patient Blood Management Practitioner (PBMP)
• 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 Chair and co-chair will be in post for two years with the option to renew for a further two years
• If both the Chair and co-chair are unable to attend a meeting or telecon, a nominated representative will stand in
• Nominations for the posts will be sought from the SETPG, if necessary, the post will be decided by voting
• If there are no nominations the Chair and PBMP will consult on the best way forward
Working Arrangements
• The SE TPG will report to the SE Regional meetings
• The SE TPG will meet a minimum of 3 times per annum, either virtually, or face to face
• The Chair 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 2 months’ notice)
• An agenda, drawn up by the Chair, will be sent out within 2 weeks of the forthcoming meeting by the RTC Admin
• There must be a minimum of the Chair, or nominated representative, plus 8 TPs present for the meeting to be quorate, if attendance is less than this the Chair and the RTC Admin will liaise to assess whether to cancel the meeting with a minimum of 4 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 the 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 Chair for approval within two weeks of the meeting
• Following approval by the Chair, the Minutes will be distributed by the RTC Admin to the TPG within 1 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
Updated: December 2022/ Review 2024