The Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS) 2025 customer satisfaction survey indicates that customers remain satisfied with the quality of the products and services they receive, scoring an average of 86% across categories.
The following concerns have been noted, and improvements are being made as necessary:
While hospitals are ultimately responsible for transporting blood products to and from the Blood Bank, the survey provides valuable insights into customers’ experiences with the transport services they use and their impact on service delivery. Where WCBS provides transportation, WCBS will, as far as possible, make improvements to meet customers’ requirements. Hospitals should, however, complement this with their own transport, as required.
The Blood Bank monitors its turnaround times (TATs) and meets these requirements 99% of the time. In the event of a delay, customers should contact the Blood Bank to log a complaint so that an investigation can identify the root cause and implement corrective action(s) to prevent a recurrence (see details of the WCBS complaints process in a later article).
The full spectrum of blood products is available from all WCBS Blood Banks, on request. Clinicians should send the blood request to the Blood Bank as soon as possible to mitigate any delays. Irradiation of blood products may result in a delay because this procedure is performed only at the Tygerberg and Groote Schuur Blood Banks. Cryoprecipitate availability has improved over the past year by pre-pooling units in the Processing Laboratory and providing them to the Blood Banks. HLA-matched platelet products rely on finding suitably matched donors from the South African Bone Marrow Registry and take significantly longer to procure. The introduction of three-way donation splits for single donor platelet products last year has improved the supply. WCBS aims to maintain a 5-day blood stock level at all times to ensure blood sufficiency in the Western Cape.
Blood Bank staff are fully trained to deal with crossmatch difficulties and will discuss any issues with the treating clinician. Doctors should therefore please complete their contact details legibly on the blood request form to facilitate communication. If you need additional medical or clinical support and advice, contact Dr Caroline Hilton, Lead Medical Consultant: Caroline@wcbs.org.za; t 021 507 6441; c 083 282 1612.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey and shared their valuable experiences using WCBS blood products and services. Your feedback will inform and guide decision-making to continuously improve the quality of our products and services. We look forward to hearing from you again in the next survey around July 2026.
For more information about the WCBS annual customer satisfaction survey, contact Hayley Alie, Hospital Liaison Officer (Hayleya@wcbs.org.za)
