The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO)
Friday, 10 July, 2020

SaBTO has called for responses to numerous recommendations put forward in relation to patient consent for blood transfusions. The recommendations relate to what is expected and required of practitioners when discussing and receiving consent for transfusions with patients, based on the likely hood of transfusion during a procedure where the patient will be incapacitated. The circumstance of emergency transfusion was also discussed and fellows felt that this particular recommendation needed to express that practitioners should proceed with the transfusion and seek retrospective consent if there is no reason to believe that the patient would refuse transfusion. The requirements for ongoing information for patients, and the right to refuse transfusions is examined, along with where standardised information should be available to the public and professional nationally and how blood transfusions regulations should be monitored.