Mary Wilson
Well-known member
Friday, 20th August 2021
Dear Colleague
As you will have already been informed, there will be a UK-wide shortage of specific blood bottles for the next 2-3 months. It is essential that every practice takes immediate action to restrict any blood tests to only those that are high priority for clinical care.
The Bottles affected are
1. 5mls Yellow top – SST 2 – clotted sample (e.g. U&E, LFTs etc) 2. Purple top – EDTA (e.g. FBC, HbA1c)
3. Light Blue top – Na Citrate (e.g. INR)
Health Boards are having to ensure that the patients with the highest risk have access to these bottles. In order to conserve remaining available stocks, it is essential that tests are requested only where absolutely necessary. Failing to do so will lead to tests becoming unavailable within weeks. Collectively, we must take steps to ensure supply for the most urgent cases and lengthen the short window of time available to identify a resolution for this issue.
Inevitably that means that the sickest patients in any setting will have priority over stable patients. The demand for blood tests using these bottles must be substantially reduced for three months to protect the sickest patients. This is a particularly challenging ask of practices and community services, given that many patients will have gone without their routine chronic disease monitoring reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.rcpath.org/uploads/asse...y-Care-re-BD-Blood-Bottle-Shortage-200820.pdf
Dear Colleague
As you will have already been informed, there will be a UK-wide shortage of specific blood bottles for the next 2-3 months. It is essential that every practice takes immediate action to restrict any blood tests to only those that are high priority for clinical care.
The Bottles affected are
1. 5mls Yellow top – SST 2 – clotted sample (e.g. U&E, LFTs etc) 2. Purple top – EDTA (e.g. FBC, HbA1c)
3. Light Blue top – Na Citrate (e.g. INR)
Health Boards are having to ensure that the patients with the highest risk have access to these bottles. In order to conserve remaining available stocks, it is essential that tests are requested only where absolutely necessary. Failing to do so will lead to tests becoming unavailable within weeks. Collectively, we must take steps to ensure supply for the most urgent cases and lengthen the short window of time available to identify a resolution for this issue.
Inevitably that means that the sickest patients in any setting will have priority over stable patients. The demand for blood tests using these bottles must be substantially reduced for three months to protect the sickest patients. This is a particularly challenging ask of practices and community services, given that many patients will have gone without their routine chronic disease monitoring reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.rcpath.org/uploads/asse...y-Care-re-BD-Blood-Bottle-Shortage-200820.pdf