National Blood Authority Australia – Annual Report 2008–2009

1.5 Agency overview

The National Blood Authority, an Australian government agency within the Health and Ageing portfolio, is responsible for ensuring the adequate, safe, secure and affordable supply of blood and blood-related products.

The National Blood Authority Act 2003 and the National Blood Agreement outline the role of the NBA which includes:

• working with jurisdictions to determine the clinical requirements for blood and blood products to meet national needs—including the development of an annual supply plan and budget
• negotiating and managing national contracts with suppliers of blood and blood products
• to obtain the products needed blood supply risk assessment and contingency planning – both for risks arising in the sector and for those that impact on the sector (e.g. pandemic (H1N1) 2009)
• supporting the work of the jurisdictions to improve how blood products are used. This includes facilitating and developing strategies and programs that will improve the safety, quality and effectiveness of blood usage, particularly around national standards, guidelines and data provision
• providing expert advice to support government policy development, including the identification of emerging risks, developments, trends and new opportunities
• managing the evaluation of proposals for blood sector improvements – including for new products, technologies and system change
• providing secretariat services to the Jurisdictional Blood Committee.

The cake celebrating the NBA’s 5th anniversary

The NBA has developed a business delivery model that is underpinned by a high level of expertise in both the global and the domestic blood business. This results in the NBA being a highly informed purchaser and policy advisor. In addition, the NBA has built up an extensive network of clinical and blood sector experts and information flows; this allows the agency to maintain awareness of the clinical and business environment and how it will or might change in the future.

The NBA’s priorities and processes are to a large extent determined by the National Blood Agreement, which was approved by the Australian Health Ministers Conference in November 2002. The policy objectives explicit in the National Blood Agreement are summarised in the extract set out in Appendix 1.

To understand how these functions are implemented, Section 1.6 contains a brief description of the blood sector and the overall governance framework for management and determination of priorities for action in the sector.