6 July 2017
In May, a packed audience of 230 delegates from 54 trusts joined consultant haematologist, Dr James Uprichard and his transfusion team for a trauma and haematology education day which St George’s hosted on behalf of the London and South East Trauma and Haematology Group.
This was the second such event at St George’s, following the success of the trauma and haematology education day in May 2016. The delegates who had travelled from all over the country represented multiple professions including transfusion practitioners, laboratory scientists, emergency department physicians, nurses, haematologists and anaesthetists. The day was principally aimed at educating staff at trauma units which feed into major trauma centres, like the one at St George’s.
The youngest presenters were James Innes and Suvetha Kugendra biomedical scientists in SWLP’s Emergency Department hot lab where they carry out tests on urgent blood samples from emergency patients. The existence of the hot lab ensures that there is a minimal delay between sending blood tests and receiving the results, improving the efficiency in the flow of patients through the emergency department.
Dr Uprichard commented: “The talks highlighted the importance of co-ordinated, multidisciplinary input for optimising transfusion needs for trauma patients. We were delighted that 230 delegates attended this event, which could not have happened without the months of hard work and organisation from Kelly Feane and the rest of our transfusion team.”
One of the speakers, Malcolm Robinson, tweeted after the event: “It was a fantastic day with great presentations, well done to my fellow speakers: learned a great deal!”