AN AUDIT TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF A STRATEGY TO REDUCE INAPPROPRIATE RED-CELL TRANSFUSIONS AT HONIARA HOSPITAL

A blood transfusion committee was established at Honiara Central Hospi tal (HCH), a national referral hospital for the Solomon Islands to pro mote a rational, safe and cost-effective blood transfusion service and to audit the use of blood particularly in the perioperative context. Following the education strategy, a 29.7% reduction in the number of u nits of blood crossmatched as a proportion of total admissions was ach ieved as well as a 30.1% reduction in the number of units transfused p er 100 operations. The failure of the education strategy to increase t he proportion of 'group and hold' requests confirms the need for an in tegrated approach between the different hospital departments involved to ensure a fully satisfactory result.