Tissue Services

24th July 2009

NHSBT reduces prices for cardiovascular tissue grafts

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) Tissue Services are significantly reducing the price of their cardiovascular tissue grafts. These reductions are a result of a continuing drive to increase efficiencies within their state of the art Tissue Bank.

The purpose built National Tissue Bank in Liverpool, opened in 2005, is the largest in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. All stages of the process from donor evaluation and obtaining consent, through processing, testing and storage to clinical release and delivery of allografts are managed by NHSBT Tissue Services. This means that you can be assured of high allograft quality and timely deliveries for patient treatment within orthopaedics, burns, ophthalmology and cardiovascular departments.

The facility also includes a research and development department. This integral, very active department ensures that new processes and services are continually introduced to support improved tissue repair and replacement therapies for patients.

These superb facilities have enabled NHSBT Tissue Services to expand existing donation programmes and instigate new ones. For heart valves, the primary goal has been to increase the number banked in the UK, aiming to address the ongoing problem of limited availability of certain types and sizes of valves.

NHSBT Tissue Services are now able to pass the savings produced by these initiatives to their customers. From August 1st 2009 there will be a price reduction of 18% on heart valves and a new pricing structure for arteries based on the length of graft required.

For further information on the tissue graft product range please contact jane.walker@nhsbt.nhs.uk or 0845 607 6820. Alternatively you can visit the website at www.nhsbttissueservices.co.uk