Subscribe to Search results

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.

Published on:

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."

Published on:

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

Published on:

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

Published on:

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".

Published on:

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".

Published on:

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.

Published on:

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.

Published on:

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%.

Published on:

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.

Published on:

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.

Published on:

Trials using single plasma packs began in late 1980.

Published on:

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

Published on:

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.

Published on:

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

Published on:

It was recommended that SAG-M be introduced as soon as possible, and it was to be expected that it would yield a considerable increase in plasma which might be available to BPL for fractionation.

Published on:

Dr Lane recorded that it was in the last quarter of 1984 that plasma supplies to BPL increased as a result of SAG-M.

Published on:

Plasmapheresis first began in the United Kingdom in early 1967.

Published on:

The Joint Steering Committee on Blood Products Production thought that the use of plasmapheresis might be difficult to justify as a means to meet targets because it inevitably exposed donors to risk.

Published on:

The Central Committee for the National Blood Transfusion Service expressed the view that increased plasma supplies could be achieved either by increasing concentrated red cell use or by plasmapheresis.

Published on: