The programme focusses on 'Co-operative Blood Inventory Management', although there are still the perennial favourites of the BSMS annual review and the Open Forum.

You can download the programme now, or read on for more about the meeting.

Workshops

The three workshops have been chosen to help hospitals to think about their inventory management practice when the blood supply is centralised. The workshops concentrate on red cell, special product, and platelet inventory management. The workshops are intended to be interactive with group discussion in small groups with feedback at the end.

Workshop A – Best practice for red cell inventory management

• What is an appropriate red cell stock level in the new climate? Do I need to hold higher stocks or can I retain my present level?
• Is stock sharing appropriate?
• How can I find a hospital to share stock with?
• What will happen in a major incident?

Workshop B – Best practice for ‘special product’ inventory management

• Should I keep a stock of CMV-ve, and or irradiated units?
• Should I ensure that I have a stock of red cell phenotyped units?
• What if I need phenotyped, CMV-ve or irradiated blood in a hurry?

Workshop C – Best practice for platelet inventory management

• Do I need to start holding platelet stock?
• Do routine platelet stocks need to be held locally rather than centrally?
• What about the availability of 7 day platelets?

Open Forum

The Open Forum is always a time for lively debate. The panel will consist of hospital representatives from the BSMS Steering Group and the NBS. To help you think about your questions the forum will cover the following topics: -

• The BSMS
• Using data for benchmarking
• The three centre strategy
• Transport and logistics
• Cold chain validation
• Confidentiality of the data

We encourage you to email your questions to us prior to the meeting.