Ordering Blood: When I order ‘blood’ (without specifying whether I require whole blood or red cell concentrates) what will my patient receive?
Blood Bank will select and crossmatch red cell concentrates if ‘blood’ is ordered without specifying the exact product needed for your patient. The Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS) keeps only limited quantities of Group O whole blood, which can be used to stock emergency blood banks, for neonatal exchange transfusions and intrauterine transfusions.
This question highlights the importance of completing the blood ordering request form correctly. You will need to indicate which product you require for your patient, the number of units, date and time required, if the product should be leucocyte filtered and/or irradiated, if the product is required for issue or is to be kept on reserve, and how soon you require the product to be issued: STAT (available in 30 minutes), on a full crossmatch (available within approximately 2 hours), or routine (available at requested date and time).
Take a look at the poster below for useful tips to completing the form correctly:

In the event that you may have submitted an incomplete blood request, the Blood Bank will contact you to obtain the necessary particulars to be able to proceed with the blood order. This may result in unnecessary delays for your patient, so it is worthwhile to check the blood request prior to submitting it to the Blood Bank.
For blood request-related queries, please contact your closest Blood Bank.