Blood Component Dispatch Records: Unit Trail

When a component leaves your controlled stock, record the movement as a unit-level event before the handover closes. Capture the unit and component identifier, dispatch route, patient or destination, date and time, stock status, supporting request or crossmatch reference, releasing person, recipient and handover evidence. If the unit comes back, append a return event with its condition and disposition while preserving the original issue.

Rule 122G makes maintenance of the records and registers specified in Schedule F Part XIIB and XIIC a condition of the blood centre licence.¹ Section L names master records for blood and components, the issue register, records of components supplied and the cross-matching report issued to the patient. It does not prescribe one universal dispatch form, so your trail may span several linked records.²

One unit, three dispatch routes

Use the identifier established in your blood component separation record across every later movement. A handwritten transfer note, portal entry or return slip that cannot be found from that identifier leaves a break in the trail.

Make the route a required field. If a unit issued for a patient is returned and later reissued, your system or register should show three events in order: issue, return and new issue. Editing the first entry to make it appear that the unit never left destroys that chronology.

Patient issue: close the handover

What to capture

Before handing over a component, your technician should be able to retrieve these details from the issue entry and its linked records:

• Unit or bag number and component identifier.
• Component name, ABO and Rh group, volume and expiry details carried from the master record.
• Patient identifiers, hospital or ward and request number.
• Crossmatch report reference and issue status, where applicable.
• Date and time of issue.
• Name or identifier of the person authorising and releasing the unit.
• Name or identifier of the person receiving it, including a porter or courier where used.
• Transport container, seal or temperature-monitoring reference where your SOP requires one.

Section L expressly includes the cross-matching report issued to the patient among the records to be maintained.² Your dispatch entry does not need to duplicate the complete worksheet, but it should point to the report clearly enough that an assessor can retrieve it from the unit or patient identifier.

Keep the source records linked

A patient issue usually touches the request, master record, crossmatch report, issue register and inventory status. If your staff search each one independently, a spelling variation or transposed number can hide part of the trail. The unit identifier should bring the records together, including any later transfusion inquiry record.

Close the handover with evidence that identifies who received the component and when. A signature, authenticated user entry or controlled acknowledgement is more useful than a free-text note saying only “sent to ward”.

Return: preserve the original issue

A returned unit should not move automatically back into available stock. Record its receipt first, then apply the status and review required by your approved return SOP.

• Original issue or dispatch reference.
• Date and time the unit left and returned.
• Reason for return.
• Person returning the unit and person accepting it.
• Seal, container and visible-condition findings.
• Temperature-monitoring evidence where used.
• Pending, quarantine or other controlled status defined by your SOP.
• Authorised decision and final disposition.

If the evidence falls outside your return criteria, link the unit to the relevant cold-chain excursion record. Where the final decision is disposal, preserve the reason and authorisation with the same unit trail used for component disposal records.

Reissue needs a new issue event. Keep the first issue and return visible so that a reviewer can account for every period during which the component was outside your centre’s controlled stock.

Transfer: identify both centres

Schedule F Part XIIB Section L separately names records of components supplied.² Treat a centre-to-centre movement as a supply or transfer record rather than filing it as though it were a patient issue.

Your transfer record should make the following details retrievable, even where a state template asks for additional fields:

• Supplying centre and receiving centre names, addresses and contact details.
• Receiving centre licence details and the date on which your team verified them under its SOP.
• Requisition, approval or transfer-note number.
• Whether the route is within the state or interstate.
• Every unit and component identifier, with group, quantity, expiry and dispatch status.
• Dispatch date and time, releasing staff member, courier or transporter and vehicle details where recorded.
• Container, seal and temperature-monitoring references.
• Documents sent with the consignment.
• Receipt date and time, receiving person and acknowledgement reference.
• Shortage, damage, refusal or return recorded as a linked exception.

For a movement that crosses a state border, keep the route-specific approvals and acknowledgements with the unit record described in the inter-state blood stock transfer guide. If the receiving centre sends a unit back, add a return movement rather than deleting or reversing the transfer.

Check state and eRaktKosh reporting

eRaktKosh is the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s national blood bank management portal.³ Before dispatch, your SOP should tell the operator how to check the current eRaktKosh workflow and any state reporting instruction that applies to the selected route.

For a West Bengal centre reviewing this control, place the latest applicable state instruction and portal procedure under document control. Do not leave “sent out” as a free-text stock adjustment when the movement may need a separate transfer or reporting action.

Add these reporting-control fields to the dispatch record:

• Reporting required: yes, no or pending review.
• Instruction or procedure used for that decision.
• Portal or return in which the movement was reported.
• Submission date and time.
• Operator and transaction or acknowledgement reference.
• Accepted, rejected or pending status.
• Correction reference if the first submission was changed.

A portal acknowledgement does not replace the internal issue register or components-supplied record named in Schedule F. Keep both linked by the unit identifier.² Before submitting a return, reconcile the movement records using the same checks applied to eRaktKosh stock entries.

Retention and retrieval

Section L closes with the requirement that the listed records be kept for five years, but it names no start date for that period.² Rule 122G gives testing records a separate and explicit clock: five years from the date of manufacture.¹ Keep the dispatch trail and its linked source records accessible in line with your documented blood bank record retention policy.

Test retrieval with a real unit rather than asking whether the register is complete. Select one patient issue, one return and one centre-to-centre transfer, then retrieve:

1. The master record and unit status before dispatch.
2. The issue or components-supplied entry.
3. The request, crossmatch or transfer authority.
4. The signed or authenticated handover.
5. Any return, discrepancy or final disposition.
6. The applicable state or eRaktKosh submission reference.

The same unit index becomes critical when your team opens a blood unit recall. If one of these records can be found only by date, staff memory or a separate spreadsheet, fix the link before the next dispatch.

Sources

1. Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, Rule 122G cdsco.gov.in
2. Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, Schedule F, Part XIIB, Section L cdsco.gov.in
3. eRaktKosh, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare eraktkosh.mohfw.gov.in