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The Policy Steering Group proposed a new laboratory be built at BPL at a cost of £21.1 million spread over the years 1982/83 to 1985/86.

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Dr Diana Walford described the delay in construction of new facilities for PBL production as "unconscionable".

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Dr Walford described the Deputy CMO, Dr Harris, as "exasperated" because of the Ministers decision to defer the eventual decision on whether to build a new laboratory within the NHS.

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Dr Vaughan announced that there would be "no commercial management of Blood Products Laboratory: modernisation programme already underway."

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Dr Walford remembered her frustration about "innumerable and repetitive meetings which generally ended without moving matters forward to any appreciable extent."

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A special health authority was established to take responsibility for the management of the BPL, the PFL in Oxford and the Blood Reference Group Laboratory.

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Dr Walford said that Dr Lane was right to describe the difficulties in meeting the problems of the NBTS as having been "accentuated by the growth in requirement during the 1970s of plasma products, an exercise in production maintained without adequate planning, co-ordination or finance from the outset."

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Regional health authorities were described by Dr Walford as "fiefdoms".

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Dr Walford described the process in deciding to develop BPL as "totally chaotic, protracted and difficult" and "needlessly so".

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Dr Walford described the delays between April 1979, when the Medicines Inspectorate conducted their inspection and condemned the premises operated for BPL as unsuitable for a pharmaceutical company, and the middle of May 1983, when construction began as "unconscionable".

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The estimate of £6-7 million put a stop to any further discussions with Scotland regarding plans for the redevelopment of BPL and was described by Dr Walford as "a sort of bitter blow".

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In November 1979 Dr Lane proposed a scheme that allowed regions to receive their concentrate and albumin in proportion to the yield from the plasma they had sent to BPL. He argued that that would provide regions with a meaningful link to BPL and would incentivise and improve the plasma collection system.

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After adjustments to the pro rata principle, to deal with special cases such as Treloar's, the DHSS introduced the distribution of blood products scheme with effect from 1 April 1981.

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Efforts were made by Dr Maycock and his colleagues to persuade clinicians to use less whole blood and more packs of concentrated red blood cells. In Scotland the service had by 1974 managed to use some 30-40% of donations in this way, England achieved less than 10%.

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The reluctance of regional health authorities to fund a greater supply of plasma to the central production facilities was to be paid by the DHSS centrally.

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It became apparent that the system of using five-litre packs of plasma was not compatible with good manufacturing practice, unless the "pooling" of the plasma donations before filling the packs took place in aseptic units.

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Trials using single plasma packs began in late 1980.

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The change to single plasma packs proved efficient in saving time and resources at regional transfusion centres.

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The combined effects of a pro rata scheme and the widespread use of single plasma packs were probably responsible for an increase in the amount of fresh frozen plasma received at BPL in 1981/82.

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Generally only 180ml of plasma could be removed from each donation.

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