Clinical support services

We offer the following direct clinical services to hospital clinicians:

• Clinical support to hospital clinicians on matters related to transfusion medicine, including managing patients with coagulopathies, platelet refractoriness, massive blood loss and adverse transfusion reactions.

• Clinical support to the laboratory, including advice on blood products utilisation and blood grouping.

• Therapeutic apheresis service. 

We work with all the hospitals in Singapore to optimise the use of our blood resources in the following ways:

• Regular direct dialogue with the various Hospital Transfusion Committees (HTC) and hospital blood bank laboratory technologists.

• Help to formulate local hospital guidelines to assist hospital physicians in deciding the appropriate clinical situations where blood component support is deemed necessary, and the use of appropriate products in these circumstances.

We are committed to continuing medical education in transfusion medicine at both the undergraduate and post-graduate level.

• We accept medical and nursing students for short attachments in every academic year. Polytechnic students from the life sciences and medical technology schools are posted here as one of their elective postings during their course of training.

• Advanced Haematology Trainees (Registrars) from the various hospitals also join us for short stints to gain experience and training in transfusion medicine.

• Expert speakers are invited to speak on topics related to blood banking and transfusion medicine during our regular staff lecture series.

• Under the Ministry of Health Human Manpower Development Programme, experts in the field of transfusion medicine are invited to speak to our doctors in the blood bank and hospitals about the latest transfusion developments.

• As a WHO Collaborating Centre, we also help train doctors, nurses and laboratory technologists from blood banks in our neighbouring countries. We host numerous foreign trainees and delegates every year, and our regional training projects include conducting quality management training and providing external proficiency testing in pre-transfusion testing in blood centres across the Western Pacific region. 

Haemovigilance is a set of surveillance procedures covering the whole transfusion chain (from the collection of blood and its components to the follow-up of recipients), intended to collect and assess information on unexpected or undesirable effects resulting from the therapeutic use of labile blood products, and to prevent their occurrence or recurrence.

The Haemovigilance Programme in Singapore started in 2002 as a joint initiative between BSG and public and private hospitals with the following objectives:

• To gather and analyse reports of all adverse and untoward events occurring during transfusion of blood and components.

• To gather and analyse “near miss” events during the transfusion process.

• To use the information acquired to determine the morbidity of transfusion.

• To provide guidance on corrective measures to prevent the recurrence of some accidents, and to improve transfusion safety.

• To improve public confidence by demonstrating to public, patients and professionals the safety of the existing transfusion system.

The data collected about “near miss” incidents and the infectious and non-infectious hazards associated with blood transfusion can be used to identify and correct procedural weaknesses and problems in the system, as well as create recommendations to improve blood transfusion safety. 

A set of national guidelines on blood transfusion is available for all doctors in Singapore.

The aim is to promote rational and safe use of blood products by equipping hospital clinicians with a reference guide on blood transfusion. 

There is a strong emphasis on research here at BSG. Research projects on various aspects of clinical and laboratory blood transfusion matters are undertaken regularly, with an aim for publication in related journals and presentation at blood transfusion medical conferences.

We are an active participant in the international transfusion medicine arena, regularly sending speakers and participants to key international conferences including conferences organised by various organisations including WHO, International Society of Cellar Therapy, Japanese Society of Blood Transfusion, International Society of Blood Transfusion, South Asian Association of Transfusion and the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). 

Apheresis (meaning “to take away” in Greek) is a technology in which the blood of a donor or patient is passed through an apparatus or machine that separates it out into constituents (red cells, white cells, platelets, plasma, etc), collects the desired component and returns the remainder to the patient or donor.

Therapeutic Apheresis is then the removal of abnormal or pathologic substances from a patient's blood using an automated blood cell separator machine. A replacement fluid, such as fresh frozen plasma, human serum albumin, or normal saline is often required.

BSG provides Therapeutic Plasma Exchange services using the latest in apheresis technology to patients in hospitals.

Some of the diseases that may require Therapeutic Plasma Exchange, either as a primary or support therapy, are:

• Myasthenia gravis

• Acute CNS inflammatory Demyelinating disease

• Antiglomerular basement membrane antibody disease

• Demyelinating polyneuropathy with IgG and IgA

• Cryoglobulinemia

• Polyneuropathy with IgM

• Acute and Chronic Demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy

• Multiple Myeloma associated with hyperviscosity or renal failure

• Post Transfusion Purpura

• Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura