‘URGENT improvement’ is needed to blood safety at Basingstoke hospital following an unannounced inspection.

The Basingstoke hospital blood bank was inspected in October 2023 and a report published in January said “a number of failures” were found.

During the inspection failures to comply with the Guide to Good Practice were identified, which the report said indicated that the Transfusion Laboratory’s operations “fell short of acceptable standards”.

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Three areas were flagged as ‘major’. These were:

-Senior management had not ensured that an ‘effective quality system’ was in place and resourced adequately

-Qualification and validation activities were deficient as evidenced

-The management of traceability of blood components was deficient as traceability had been consistently below 99.5 per cent since 2022.

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The inspector found there was a lack of personnel to carry out core and out-of-hours activities and an insufficient training programme for new staff, with not all staff receiving initial and continued training.

The report said that equipment, facilities and systems were not “evaluated at an appropriate frequency” and there was a lack of appropriate controls relating to data protection.

In view of the findings, it was established that “urgent improvement” is required and a further inspection will be carried out to ensure improvements have been made.

The report, published by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT), said that many of the areas requiring action had been addressed or are in the process of being addressed by the blood transfusion team.

HHFT has been asked for a comment.