Ahead of BBTS 2026, BBTS Honorary Secretary and Chair of the Transfusion Practitioner Specialist Interest Group, Danny Gaskin, looks ahead to this year’s TP SIG session and why maternity transfusion safety remains such an important area of focus.
Maternity care has received significant national attention in recent years. Reviews including the Ockenden Review and the more recent Amos Review have highlighted the devastating impact that failures in maternity care can have on women, babies and their families. They also reinforce the importance of communication, learning from incidents and multidisciplinary working.
For those of us working in transfusion, maternity care is a significant part of everyday practice. From antenatal blood group and antibody screening to fetomaternal haemorrhage quantification, supporting the management of obstetric haemorrhage and ensuring the appropriate use of anti-D immunoglobulin, transfusion teams play an essential role in the safe care of women throughout pregnancy and beyond.
This year, the BBTS Transfusion Practitioner Specialist Interest Group has chosen to focus on the delivery of anti-D prophylaxis, one of the most successful interventions in modern transfusion medicine. However, the latest SHOT Annual Report continues to identify incidents involving omitted or delayed administration, knowledge gaps, IT-related issues and challenges associated with evolving pathways such as cell-free fetal DNA testing.
During the session, we'll bring together a multidisciplinary panel of Transfusion Practitioners, biomedical scientists, doctors, nurses and midwives to explore the learning from these incidents, discuss practical approaches to reducing risk, and consider how we can work together to strengthen maternity transfusion care and improve patient safety.
If you're attending BBTS 2026, I'd encourage you to join us in Glasgow on Tuesday 15 September, from 09:30 to 11:00. Whether you work in the laboratory or the clinical environment, I hope you'll come along and be part of the discussion.
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