Stakeholder activities

Stakeholder activities

The Blood Service is responsible for serving Finnish healthcare as the only organisation in its field and as a top-level expert organisation. This includes ensuring the availability of services such as blood product and tissue services and some laboratory and expert services to support clinical patient care on every day of the year and in all circumstances.

The Blood Service is answerable to the regulatory authorities for the reliability and safety of its operations. The quality system and detailed instructions have an important role in the daily work of the Blood Service. The Finnish Medicines Agency Fimea regularly inspects the quality of our operations.

All healthcare units who purchase blood products and other services produced by the Blood Service are our clients. The Blood Service is responsible to its clients for a high standard of service, reliability and efficiency, which help to ensure high-quality patient care. We improve our activities in close collaboration with our clients.

Patients have a right to receive safe blood products. The Blood Service selects eligible blood donors on the basis of safety, and takes great care in testing the blood and ensuring product safety. The Blood Service improves the safety of the use of blood products through training and by providing information, and by collaborating with hospitals.

Blood services would not exist without blood donors, and one of our values at the Blood Service is respect for donors. This respect can be seen in practice in good customer service, smoothly functioning blood donations and attention to donor safety. The Blood Service systematically surveys the donors’ wishes and feedback and develops customer service accordingly.

As to research, the Blood Service works in close collaboration with researchers in various universities and also pharmaceutical companies and other research communities. We also work closely together with educational institutions. The Blood Service offers students work experience opportunities and subjects for academic theses.

The administrative bodies, central office, districts and local departments of the Finnish Red Cross are all important stakeholders in the Blood Service. One area of collaboration is local blood donation events, which local FRC volunteers help to organise.

The Blood Service is also an active participant in collaboration between international blood service organisations, having a say in field-level practices.

The Blood Service’s member organisations (some of these are members of the parent organisation, Finnish Red Cross):

International:

  • The Blood transfusion Genomics Consortium BGC (an international partnership between blood services, research institutions and companies)
  • European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine EATRIS (member)
  • European Blood Alliance EBA (organisational member)
  • European Federation for Immunogenetics EFI (individual members)
  • European Society of Organ Transplantation (individual members)
  • Global Advisory Panel (GAP) on Corporate Governance and Risk Management of Blood Services in Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (an international partnership between blood banks, organisational member)
  • International Haemovigilance Network
  • International Society of Blood Transfusion (individual members)
  • Scandiatransplant (Scandinavian collaboration body for organ transplantations; the Blood Service participates as a collaboration partner of HUS, the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa)
  • World Marrow Donor Association (member)

Finnish:

  • FHRB Finnish Haematological Registry and Biobank (owner/shareholder)
  • Finnish Association of Private Care Providers (Hyvinvointialan liitto; member)
  • Gift of Life collaboration (Lahja elämälle; collaboration body for communication to increase organ donation, involving associations and organisations in the field; member of the steering group)

The Blood Service develops its operations in close collaboration with its stakeholders.