BC Contingency Planning

Please note: This page is currently under revision. Click here to visit the draft page (access-restricted). 

The availability of blood and blood products is essential to the provision of emergency, surgical and medical care in British Columbia. In a blood system based on voluntary donation and in which BC imports 10-15% of its blood supply, the potential for blood shortage is an ongoing risk. The BC Provincial Blood Coordinating Office (PBCO) in collaboration with its provincial stakeholders have developed a BC Blood Contingency Plan to manage potential or actual blood shortage situations. A number of emergency scenarios including natural or man-made disasters, pandemic outbreak, terrorism and/or extremes of weather could contribute to extremely low blood inventory levels.

The BC Blood Contingency Plan is a framework for a rapid and effective response to blood shortages in BC. The plan is an advisory document for those involved with the management, supply and use of blood. The aim is to ensure that access to safe transfusion is maintained for as many patients as possible during a blood shortage, and to provide a means to enable the equitable allocation of blood in such situations, on the basis of need.

A toolkit is also available to help hospitals develop their own site based blood shortage plan: