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FOI 2023 58 - Blood Culture

 

Information Requested:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please could your Trust provide the following information.
In June 2022 NHS England published a document entitled ‘Improving the blood culture pathway’ which included a few recommendations regarding blood culture collection and data that should be collected and reported on at Board level. Can you please provide me with answers to the following questions:
Does your Trust have a process for skin preparation/cleaning prior to blood collection? Y/N
Do you take two sets of blood cultures each time as recommended in the guidance? Y/N
If no, what percentage of patients do have two sets of blood cultures taken?
Do you measure the volume of blood taken each time a blood culture is taken (the recommended amount is 20ml per sample)? Y/N
Do you measure the time between blood sample collection and the sample being loaded onto an analyser instrument (the recommended maximum time is four hours)? Y/N
If yes, what is the average time?
Do you collect data on blood sample contamination? Y/N
Is the data described above reported at Board level as recommended?

 

Information provided for the answer:

Thank you for your recent request dated 27th April 2023.

  1. Does your Trust have a process for skin preparation/cleaning prior to blood collection? Y/N Not applicable – Blood Culture samples are collected by local health board staff, not PHW staff.

 

  1. Do you take two sets of blood cultures each time as recommended in the guidance? Y/N We issue sets of two bottles to the users but, as above, the number of sets collected is not determined by PHW staff but the Health Board.

 

  1. If no, what percentage of patients do have two sets of blood cultures taken? This information is not routinely collected or available. 

 

  1. Do you measure the volume of blood taken each time a blood culture is taken (the recommended amount is 20ml per sample)? Y/N As above, we do not collect the samples, however we do perform a sample volume audit on blood cultures every few years and feedback to users if issues are identified.

 

  1. Do you measure the time between blood sample collection and the sample being loaded onto an analyser instrument (the recommended maximum time is four hours)? Y/N Blood culture processing audits are performed, which includes reviewing the time between sample collection and the sample being loaded onto the analyser and identifying where any delays are occurring. This is fed back to the Health Boards.

 

  1. If yes, what is the average time? At the last audit, after excluding some extreme anomalies, the average time was less than 2 hours.

 

  1. Do you collect data on blood sample contamination? Y/N Not routinely. We assume you mean contamination of the external bottle. We do register when this happens due to potential for laboratory acquired infection/Health & Safety risk and feed this back to the Health Board via Datix incident management.

 

  1. Is the data described above reported at Board level as recommended? Not directly to the board but through Datix to user and user communication, such as Pathology Newsletters to stakeholders.

 

I have provided contact details for each Health Board below for the information Public Health Wales does not hold. You will need to contact them individually for this information.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/866/page/39187

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board

http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/861/page/39134

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

http://www.cardiffandvaleuhb.wales.nhs.uk/freedom-of-information-new

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board

https://cwmtafmorgannwg.wales/foi/

Swansea Bay University Health Board

https://sbuhb.nhs.wales/about-us1/foia/

Hywel Dda University Health Board

http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/862/page/52085

Powys Teaching Health Board

http://www.powysthb.wales.nhs.uk/freedom-of-information

 

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of the decision, you should write to the Corporate Complaints Manager, Public Health Wales NHS Trust, 3, Number 2, Capital Quarter, Tyndall Street, Cardiff, CF10 4BZ.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint or review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Trust. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner for Wales
2nd Floor
Churchill House
Churchill Way
Cardiff
CF10 2HH

Telephone: 029 2067 8400
Email: wales@ico.org.uk