We visited Manchester Blood Centre at the transfusion centre and a remote session which was taking place in the clubhouse at Sale Football Club. The service operates from their premises on Plymouth Grove, Manchester and also from remote sessions set up in different venues, such as church halls and sport centres. We visited the main centre and the remote session on separate days.

Manchester Blood Centre is a blood donor service. This means that it collects whole blood and blood components from voluntary donors and then delivers this to the NHS and other UK health services where directed.

During our visit to the centre we talked with seven donors and we talked with four people at the remote session. People told us they were very happy with the quality of the service provided and because of this they were happy to return to make donations whenever they could. We were told: “The staff are happy and chirpy, everybody’s really helpful and you know it’s being used quickly.”

And:

“Staff are very professional and very friendly. It’s clean and I’ve never had a problem with any infection, bleeding or anything like that.”

We found that information was provided to make sure people gave informed consent before giving donations. Systems were in place for dealing with emergencies.

We saw that a robust staff recruitment and selection policy was used. We found that the quality of the service at the main site was checked and changes made to facilitate improvements as required. We found more evidence was needed to show that the service listened to people who gave donations at the remote sessions.