THESE are the people who are responsible for getting more than 25,000 units of donated blood to the right patient each year.

Prof Mike Murphy, a consultant haematologist, and Barbara Cripps, manager of the blood safety and conservation team, work in the blood transfusion laboratory for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.

Each month they are responsible for thousands of units of donated blood being correctly dispatched and used in transfusions for patients in the county’s hospitals.

The team has managed to almost eliminate the risk of matching the wrong blood type to a patient by developing a blood barcoding system called SafeTx, which ensures accurate sample labelling and reduces delays to surgery as a result of missing or inaccurate blood tests.

Staff use a hand-held computer to scan a barcode on a patient’s wristband, which contains information about their blood type.

The technology then prompts staff to scan the bag of donated blood, ensuring it is safe to give to the patient.

The equipment will not allow the transfusion to start until the doctor or nurse has scanned in their own barcode ID, which tells the computer whether they are qualified to give a transfusion.

In 2005, 4.2 per cent of all samples held in the trust’s blood transfusion laboratories were inappropriately or inadequately labelled, and 2,000 samples were rejected. But since the new system has been introduced, the time to complete a transfusion has been cut from 130 to 80 minutes, and the number of staff involved has also halved.

Prof Murphy said that, in a worse-case scenario, a mismatched sample could result in the death of a patient.

He added: “But we haven’t had an incident like that for more than a decade, and the risk is markedly reduced with this new system.”

The Oxford Mail has teamed up with the National Blood Service to try to get 1,000 new donors to give blood before winter.

Prof Murphy said he thought the campaign was a great idea.

He said: “We used to have blood shortages in the mid to late 1990s, but the blood service has done a fantastic job of making sure it never gets like that again.

“I hope people decide to get behind the Oxford Mail campaign in time for winter.”

Got a story about giving or receiving blood? Call Amanda Williams on 01865 425426 or email awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk