Blood Options 1
O negative / Group specific / Cross-matched
There are various options for a patient to receive blood:
The fastest will be O negative blood that is available in the labour ward fridge for an emergency where significant bleeding is noted and there is no time to wait for group specific (takes around 20 minutes) or fully cross-matched (around 40 minutes) blood
If a patient has significant ongoing bleeding the Major Haemorrhage Protocol may need to be activated via switchboard on 2222 and an Obstetric emergency declared so that the blood bank, Heamatologist and porter can be allocared to assist with the emergency
If you are ever asked to activate this protocol, remember to deactive it at the end!
