A project closure conference was recently held in Skopje for the EU-funded “Strengthening of the Blood Safety System” project which provided support to start implementing a Quality System in the Institute for Transfusion Medicine (NITM) of the Republic of Macedonia.

Project activities aimed to establish internationally accepted blood transfusion quality standards among the 3 regional centres and 18 hospital units that comprise the NITM. A new re-organisational set up of the blood transfusion system that will implement EU quality and safety standards during the process of blood collection, testing, processing, storage, and distribution was supported. This will increase the overall quality of transfusion services with a focus on the improvement of common policies and training of health professionals while also serving as a basis for further strengthening and capacity building of the national blood transfusion system.

Project activities included the publishing of two essential guides on Quality Management (QM) – a Guide for Standard Operative Procedures and a Quality and Safety Guide - with guidelines being registered in an online web-based document management system (DMS) accessible for employees of the Blood Transfusion Organisation (BTO).

Project capacity building measures included the training of 150 Macedonian health professionals and 30 specialists in transfusion medicine, biologists, biochemists, medical laboratory technicians, as well as training for 12 professionals in Slovenia.

The project was implemented by the consortium HD European Consulting Group, Institute for Blood Transfusion Serbia and EPOS Health Management.