annual report images

1.1  General Manager's review

The last 12 months have been an important time of achievement for the National Blood Authority. The signing of the Deed of Agreement with the Australian Red Cross Society means we now have robust agreements in place with all blood suppliers.

We were delighted to be awarded the Prime Minister's Silver Award for Excellence in Public Sector Management for our procurement of recombinant products. This signified broader recognition of our capacity to design and implement innovative and effective public policy in the area of procurement. In 2007 we have taken our first significant steps to improve the safety and quality of product use and we are becoming effective advocates for ensuring that blood supply matters are included in broader health sector management and planning. Our strong relationships with a growing range of stakeholders and our organisational capacity to deliver to our own expectations remain key to our success.

As always, being a small specialist agency provides both advantages and disadvantages. This was never as evident as when our offices (along with many other buildings in central Canberra) were made inoperable by flooding on 27 February, prompting an unplanned but highly successful trial of our Business Continuity Plan. A major procurement decision was made around my dining room table later that day and within 36 hours the NBA was operational in alternative premises in Fyshwick, complete with all our IT files. Fortunately, though, our year ended on a much more positive note. The National Blood Authority made its first major contribution to international blood sector developments by presenting two papers at the International Society of Blood Transfusion annual conference in Madrid. This has been an eventful year, as you will see from our annual report, and we look forward to building on these achievements again in 2007–08.

A development in 2006 was the provision of the then Minister for Health and Ageing's Statement of Expectation, articulating strategic objectives for the National Blood Authority for 2006–07. This was part of the government's overall agency reforms, aimed at improving the accountability and transparency of all government agencies. Table 1 in section 1.2 describes our achievements against this statement and I am delighted to say our performance has been sound in all areas. The statement confirmed that the priority for the NBA during 2006–07 was to continue to meet the needs of people requiring blood and blood products, delivering value for money and operating in accordance with government policy and law. The statement emphasised the need for us to continue to focus on building strong and durable relationships with our key stakeholders through innovative and collaborative arrangements to achieve the objectives of the National Blood Agreement.

The NBA has focused on three major deliverables for our stakeholders, namely:

This year saw the commencement of a new Corporate Plan, which was developed following consultations with state and territory health CEOs and other stakeholders and which integrates the functions funded in the 2005 budget. The goals developed in this plan form the basis of our 2006–07 Operational Plan.

This year we have again provided policy and expert advice to jurisdictions on a number of matters which will improve arrangements for the supply and management of blood products. Four key contributions in this area were:

On 21 August 2006, a significant milestone for the blood sector was reached with the execution of the Deed of Agreement with the Australian Red Cross Society for the services provided by the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. I would like to express my gratitude to the National Blood Authority Fresh Blood team and the Australian Red Cross Blood Service negotiation team for their ongoing commitment and determination to achieve an outcome that we can all be proud of.

Upon signing the Deed with the Australian Red Cross Society, we also commenced work on a Ministerially-sanctioned independent business study to assess the operations of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. This study will determine the fair and reasonable costs for products and services provided by the Australian Red Cross Blood Service and aims to provide a sound basis for government funding decisions in future years.

We continue to maintain our focus on effective supply planning and monitoring supply levels to ensure we provide an adequate, safe, secure and affordable supply of blood and blood products. Once again the National Blood Authority was able to meet its core objective of ensuring suitable products were always available for patient use. Several significant improvements were made during the year, including the earlier approval by Ministers of the National Supply Plan and Budget in March 2007.

Plasma-derived Factor VIII was in short supply for much of the year and to manage this problem the NBA worked very effectively with clinicians and suppliers, including successfully negotiating a unique contractual arrangement for a contingent supply of plasma-derived Factor VIII.

In September 2006, we held a National Data Workshop, which attracted high attendance from the clinical and management areas of the blood sector.

Our goal was to ask the question, 'What data could the NBA best supply to help improve the use of blood?' There was widespread support for initiatives to improve the standard of patient care and a number of national opportunities were identified, including guidelines, a blood prescription form, a haemovigilance program and the creation of a data strategy.

One of our continuous improvement initiatives this year was the development of an Integrated Data Management System (IDMS). This will provide the foundation for our information technology data management, reporting and analysis capacity in the future. Together with the development of expert product-specific demand models, it will increase our ability to improve our supply planning and forecasting. To support the IDMS, the National Blood Authority implemented a new information communication technology infrastructure platform in April 2007.

This year we commenced the development of a new Australian Bleeding Disorders Register, under the auspices of a steering committee chaired by Dr John Rowell on behalf of the Australian Haemophilia Centre Directors' Organisation. This cooperative model of development, where an NBA-sponsored project will provide benefits for patient groups and clinicians as well as governments, is one the NBA will continue to emulate going forward.

This year saw the implementation of new supply arrangements for imported blood products. Importantly, two additional recombinant Factor VIII products have been added to the product list. These products are the best available anywhere in the world and the NBA is very proud to have been able to deliver this outcome for the haemophilia community. Work also commenced on the development of tenders for the IVIg standing offer and the diagnostics products standing offer. Once again the key element of our approach is thorough engagement with our stakeholders in determining needs and preferences and ensuring active engagement of our stakeholders in the evaluation and tender assessment process.

In 2007 we gained agreement to a draft National Blood Supply Contingency Plan, which seeks to integrate our suppliers' risk management plans and our previous risk management planning for plasma and recombinant products. The development of this plan has been very well received by health sector planners and has ensured an integrated approach with broader health sector emergency management arrangements. Further work will be done during 2007–08, including testing the plan prior to its final approval.

Our Blood Counts Program, which works with jurisdictions and clinical stakeholders to improve patient outcomes around blood use, has made great strides this year. Our Clinical Advisory Council has provided us with clinical guidance in a number of important areas, including the development of a national haemovigilance program. This program now has a broad stakeholder group that is actively working with us to develop national definitions, reporting standards and data sets.

A pilot project that we jointly undertook with the South Australian health department established that hospital-wide incident reporting systems could be used to produce haemovigilance data. As far as we know, this has not been done elsewhere internationally and the NBA presented the results of this project at the International Society of Blood Transfusion scientists conference in Spain in June 2007.

We have continued to work cooperatively with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care on a number of projects, including hospital accreditation.

Under the direction of a Jurisdictional Blood Committee working group, the NBA completed the IVIg criteria for use guidelines. This required extensive consultation with our clinical partners on the categories of conditions and circumstances for the diagnostic, qualifying, exclusion and review criteria for the use of IVIg therapy.

As mentioned above, the National Blood Authority's Business Continuity Plan was tested in February 2007 when a hailstorm resulted in severe flooding of our offices. For four weeks, the Business Services team worked long hours to return the offices to their previous state and to ensure that others were able to continue with their own work. What was a significant task at the outset was successfully managed by our small yet efficient Business Services team, allowing the speedy resumption of almost business as usual.

In October 2006, Peter DeGraaff, Deputy General Manager, Contract Management and Supply Planning, resigned from the National Blood Authority. I would like to express my thanks to him for his quality contribution to the blood sector during his time with the NBA and previously in the Department of Health and Ageing.

This year has also seen us farewell our first Board and in particular our first Chair, Professor Richard Smallwood. Over the last four years, Professor Smallwood has made a huge contribution to the NBA and has represented us in a number of other forums such as the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee and the Australian Red Cross Blood Service research and development conference. Just as importantly, Professor Smallwood personally supported me as I worked to establish the NBA and I will miss him at both a professional and a personal level. I look forward to his continuing contribution to sector reforms in his role as Chair of our Clinical Advisory Council. I would also like to thank the two other retiring National Blood Authority Board members, Mr Russell McGowan and Dr Chris Brook, for their contributions. Dr Brook has been highly influential in driving the blood sector reforms over the last decade and many Australians have reason to be grateful for his contribution.

I would like to welcome Mr Garry Richardson as the new Chair of the National Blood Authority Board and new members Mr Rob Christie and Associate Professor David Cooper. I look forward to working with the new Board over the next few years and building further on our achievements.

I thank all staff for their contributions to the National Blood Authority's objectives. I hope you enjoy reading this year's annual report, which encompasses the many highlights and successes of 2006–07.

General Manager's Signature

Dr Alison Turner

General Manager
National Blood Authority

Back to top