Unfortunately the NHS Blood and Transplant convalescent plasma programme has stopped.
The Department of Health and Social Care has instructed NHS Blood & Transplant to stop collecting convalescent plasma. This decision follows completed analysis of trial results that showed no overall benefit for people in hospital with coronavirus and a decision not to move forward with a third trial into plasma use early in the disease.
If you have already received an email confirming that your kit has been dispatched you should still receive your kit, however as the trial is no longer running, you do not need to use the kit. Please discard the test kit in a safe manner. If you have not received email confirmation of your test kit dispatch, you will not receive a test kit.
No, if you have received your test kit, please discard the kit in a safe manner.
Yes, you will still be informed of the outcome of your test. Please see the relevant sections below on how you will be notified of your test results.
You do not need to request a new test kit as we are no longer collecting convalescent plasma. However, we appreciate the time you’ve taken to support NHS Blood & Transplant.
Unfortunately, if you have not returned your test kit by the 18th of March, you will not be receiving your test results as NHSBT are no longer collecting convalescent plasma. However, we appreciate the time you’ve taken to support NHS Blood & Transplant. Please do not send your test kit in if you have not done so already.
For now, no further action is needed. We are very grateful for your time and commitment to date and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. The good news is that we are starting to adapt our donor network to collect plasma to help make medicines already being used to treat patients with rare diseases.
We are in the early stages of collecting plasma in this way and may contact you in the future if we think your donation could help patients who depend on these types of treatments.
You can find more information on plasma for medicines on the NHS Blood and Transplant website: https://www.blood.co.uk/plasma/
Yes, we aim to use convalescent plasma collected in some capacity in the future.
Yes, we are starting to adapt our donor network to collect plasma to help make medicines already being used to treat patients with rare diseases. We are in the early stages of collecting plasma in this way and may contact you in the future if we think your donation could help patients who depend on these types of treatments.
You can find more information on Plasma For Medicines on the NHS Blood and Transplant website https://www.blood.co.uk/plasma/
There’s no need for you to do anything now. We may write to you with options about donating blood or other products in the future.
If you have further any questions, please contact our helpdesk: 0300 123 23 23