Blood Tracking Systems Funding

As part of an extensive programme of transformation and modernisation of the Health and Social Care System (HSC) in Northern Ireland, the Pathology Blueprint Programme, a new regional pathology management structure, will provide a digital roadmap and the introduction of digital interoperability across the whole local system and digitalisation of pathology services through three electronic systems for blood transfusions: on the clinical side, a regional Electronic Patient Record (EPR) will create a single digital care record for every citizen in Northern Ireland who receives health and social care; for laboratories and blood banks, the WinPath Core Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) will significantly improve the delivery of key clinical diagnostic services; and the new Blood Production and Tracking (BPaT) solution will integrate blood production and tracking information to provide a fully functioning regional electronic vein-to-vein donor management, blood production and tracking system.

Once fully developed and integrated, these solutions will lead to an improved ability to ascertain patient outcomes for those receiving a transfusion, and will be paramount in providing one safe effective interface for clinical staff to ensure the right blood goes to the right patient. Moreover, service users will have access to all the relevant pathology data, including blood transfusion outcomes.

The Department of Health is currently engaging with Data Management colleagues within the Department and HSC Trusts to assess the extent to which this recommendation is already being carried out amid these ongoing developments.

A Digital working group consisting of Welsh Government officials, Welsh Blood Service, BHNOG and Digital Health & Care Wales (DHCW) has been established and has developed a roadmap outlining the interdependencies of current national IT programmes to meet this recommendation in full including timelines and costing required. Data accessibility to allow monitoring and benchmarking via the National Data Resource (NDR) is also underway, this work is supported through a proof of concept for clinical benchmarking within a data dashboard for Preoperative anaemia management for major surgery that will include red cell transfusions.

The existing ‘Account for Blood’ system already helps Scottish Health Boards to monitor outcomes for transfusion patients. SNBTS is working with its digital colleagues in NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), with help from the Haematology and Transfusion clinical network, to amend this system to ensure it can deliver the key elements envisaged by recommendation 7f) i. Separately the Scottish Government is working with SNBTS and NSS, with help from the Haematology and Transfusion clinical network, to help identify the gaps in current digital systems provision in the transfusion process within the Health Boards. This will then be developed into an outline business case to consider the most appropriate options for digitisation, which will be discussed in detail with all the Health Boards.

Implementing these sub recommendations is particularly challenging and requires substantial investment, as it involves working across the four nations and with multiple system partners.

To support an effective long term implementation plan that minimises complexity, a design team is currently undertaking mapping of clinical pathways, the requirements of digitisation along the pathway, interoperability and the employment of standards. Careful consideration needs to be given to the digital maturity of local organisations. Interdependencies will need to be mapped against other large digital initiatives and systems to be implemented.

No statement on delivery from UK Government has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.