Satellite Blood Fridge

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE), Western General Hospital (WGH) and Royal Hospital for Sick Children (RHSC) are the only NHS Lothian sites to have satellite blood fridges. This document sets forth the operational policy only for all relevant clinical issues relating to the satellite blood fridges on these above sites. The Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005 (BSQR) state that there must be guidelines, standard operating procedures, policies and training programmes in place to support safe blood banking and clinical transfusion

practice. Managerial and technical issues relating to the satellite fridges are excluded and can be found in site specific Hospital Transfusion Laboratory procedures.

This policy must be read in conjunction with the Satellite Blood Fridges Procedures document. When RHSC relocates to the Little France site and becomes the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, that hospital will no longer have access to a satellite blood fridge as all red cells will be issued directly from the transfusion laboratory thereafter. This policy will be revised to remove reference to RHSC when that relocation occurs.