Public Policy Document

The Policy on Freezing Red Blood Cells, its Components, and Rare Blood Types for Emergency and Crisis Purposes, was issued in 2020.  The significance of this policy lies in addressing the challenges faced by blood donation centers and blood transfusion services in meeting hospitals' needs for blood and its components and ensuring sufficient quantities, especially in emergencies and crises. Blood and its derivatives are highly valuable resources for saving lives, particularly as some rare blood types can be difficult to obtain under certain circumstances.

The policy is based on the mechanism of freezing concentrated red blood cells, as freezing is the only globally available technique to extend the shelf life of blood and maintain a continuous supply of blood units, especially rare blood types. The policy aims to establish and update standard operating procedures to unify blood freezing practices in the country, according to a specific schedule based on global developments in blood freezing. It also defines the conditions under which frozen stock can be used and the regulations for recycling the stock to avoid wastage or spoilage.

Providing the strategic medical stock of blood supplies and the strategic blood stock is a national priority to address emergencies, crises, and disasters in the UAE.
 

1. Provide and manage the national strategic blood reserves for emergencies, crises, and disasters. 
2. Supervise the strategic medical stock of blood and blood components.
3. Utilize the strategic blood reserve.     
4. Ensure medical facilities in the UAE are digitally connected to the emergency, crisis, and disaster management authority in the Ministry of Health and Prevention. 
    

1. Providing and managing the strategic blood inventory for emergencies, crises, and disasters: 
   • The health entity, within its geographical scope of responsibility, commits to taking necessary measures to provide and manage the strategic medical inventory of blood freezing supplies and blood inventory, covering the associated expenses.
   • The strategic medical inventory of blood freezing supplies and blood inventory is used to respond to medical and health needs in exceptional situations resulting from emergencies, crises, or disasters.
   • The quantity of the strategic medical inventory of blood freezing supplies and blood inventory must be sufficient to meet health needs in various emergency, crises, and disaster scenarios.
2. Monitoring strategic medical inventory of blood freezing supplies and blood supplies:
   • Monitoring companies, institutions, or entities contracted to ensure compliance with terms and conditions for providing and managing the strategic inventory of blood freezing supplies and blood inventory.
   • Overseeing procedures for providing and managing the strategic medical inventory of blood freezing supplies and blood inventory, in coordination with health authorities, blood donation centers, or any other relevant entities.
   • Managing the strategic medical inventory of blood freezing supplies and blood inventory, including all aspects related to inventory, supplies, special materials, blood units, or their components, and the mechanism for transporting and delivering required blood units to the designated site of use by relevant entities.
3. Use of the strategic blood inventory:     
   • The strategic medical inventory of blood freezing supplies and blood inventory is used to respond to medical and health needs in exceptional situations resulting from emergencies, crises, or disasters. The quantity of the strategic medical inventory of blood freezing supplies and blood inventory, including blood units and their components, must be sufficient to meet health needs for the defined period, in coordination with the relevant health authorities.

1. Respond to the needs of medical facilities of rare blood types in case of emergency and disasters.
2. Reduce response time to blood requests related to emergency and disasters to 60 minutes.
3. Reduce the number of tested blood units wasted due to expiry.
    

Strategic partners at participating local authorities, UAE community of blood donors (citizens and residents alike), especially those with rare blood types, and suppliers of technologies and materials useful for blood freezing.