The Transfusion Medicine Service supports all clinicians in the QMHA, providing them with the blood products they need to give their patients the best possible care.

Our nurses organise appointments for people to bring their pets in to give blood - see Could your pet help save lives?.  We have a specific blood donor room and our highly experienced nurses provide a calm and caring environment for our amazing blood donors.  Our priority is to ensure that our blood donors are comfortable with the donation experience, as well as being healthy and well, which means they are carefully assessed before enrolment.  We have both cat and dog blood donors and we use their donations to produce a variety of blood products - see Component Therapy.

Once our blood products have been produced we can supply any clinician in the QMHA with the products they require.  The services most commonly requiring our products are the Anaesthesia and Analgesia Service, the Critical Care Service, the Internal Medicine Service, the Oncology Service , Soft Tissue Surgery Service and Ophthalmology service.

We have excellent equipment thanks in no small part to the kind donations of many people through the Animal Care Trust.  We advise QMHA clinicians about the most appropriate use of our blood products and we are also happy to answer any queries about transfusion medicine that veterinary surgeons or nurses in practice may have - contact us at blooddonor@rvc.ac.uk

Finally, we aim to increase awareness and knowledge of feline and canine blood donation in the veterinary world and beyond.  We are active in investigating how we can improve both the donation process and use of blood products.

RVC Transfusion Medicine Service - In the News

Senna beats rare condition through Lottie's blood donation (Daily Mail 2021)