The WPBTS firmly upholds its core function to provide an adequate supply of safe blood and blood products to meet the transfusion needs in the Western Cape, and the rest of the country if there is surplus. Beyond this, we may provide blood for non-clinical use to university affiliated research institutions/departments, testing laboratories and private life science companies/institutions on request. The blood volume requirements for non-clinical use are minimal. WPBTS adopts the following ethical protocol for the provision of blood and blood products for non-clinical use.
- Only blood/blood products that are surplus to the Service’s requirements and that are not usable for transfusion purposes or required for patients may be considered for non-clinical use.
- Expired or transfusion-transmitted infection positive products or samples are of no potential therapeutic value to patients and may be supplied for non-clinical use.
- In-date blood products are of potential therapeutic value to patients but may be approved for non-clinical use only if there is reasonable certainty of expiry of products from the applicable blood group.
- Blood donors must provide written consent that samples of their blood and/or donation data may be used on occasion for scientific research. The scope of blood donor consent as set out in the donor self-exclusion questionnaire states that samples of their blood and/or donation data may be used on occasion for scientific research, the objective of which is to improve the safety of the blood supply to patient and donor health and well-being. On occasion the Service may permit researchers to request additional samples with their consent.
- Additional sample requests that do not fully meet the consent requirement will be approved subject to separate consent being processed by the researcher, or will be referred to the WPBTS Executive Board’s Social and Ethics Committee.
- The donor’s decision must be respected and donors should not be coerced into providing consent against their will.
- Blood donor and recipient confidentiality are paramount and any samples or products supplied to third parties must be de-linked to ensure that donors cannot be identified by external parties.
- Only fully-tested blood and blood products may be provided.
- Blood donors and the Service’s staff should not be unnecessarily inconvenienced or disadvantaged by the withdrawal of extra samples at the time of donation.
- The requestor must provide a request letter for approval by the WPBTS CEO/Medical Director or referral to the WPBTS Executive Board’s Social and Ethics Committee. The letter should include the following:
- Name and contact particulars of the requestor/researcher.
- Type of samples required eg. warm returned red cell concentrates, buffy coats.
- Frequency and sample volumes eg. once-off, one unit every 8 weeks for 12 months.
- Purpose for which samples are required eg. scientific research, population normal values, instrument evaluation, reagents, training.
- Evidence of the entity’s ethics committee approval
- Process to ensure safe disposal of sample tubes or blood packs.
- Charges may be levied at the discretion of the WPBTS CEO/ Medical Director.
- Samples collected from WPBTS staff and researchers themselves will be collected by the WPBTS Specialised Donations Department in dry or quad packs under separate consent.
- Patient crossmatch samples will not be given to third parties.