Information and resources for hospital and lab staff
If you're involved in matching blood for patients with inherited anaemias, find out more information about the blood group genotyping programme what it and means for you.
How this programme will work
Blood group genotyping will be available for all people in England living with sickle cell disorder, thalassemia, and with transfusion dependent rare inherited anaemias.
We’re hoping to start taking samples in autumn 2023.
This programme will be able to test more patients, faster, thanks to a new array developed by the Blood transfusion Genomics Consortium (BGC). The samples will be tested at NHSBT’s Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory in Bristol.
NHSBT will not charge hospitals for the first year, funded by the programme. We will also test for Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) type (commonly known as the tissue or bone marrow type), so people who are eligible for a stem cell transplant will have taken the first step already.
Before sampling starts, we’d ask laboratory, haemoglobinopathy and transfusion teams to plan for incorporating this test into your test requesting and reporting repertoire and incorporating the results of this test in your Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) .
