§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
What blood functions or derivatives made from United Kingdom donated human blood and "pooled" so that a given sample may contain elements from many different donors are in current use in the National Health Service. [HL1615]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)All blood products manufactured by the National Health Service plasma fractionation centres are sourced from pooled non-UK plasma. However, fresh frozen plasma (FFP), a blood component for transfusion, is sourced from UK donated blood in the same way as red cells and platelets. Like red cells, FFP is not pooled before use, although samples from up to 10 donor units of FFP are pooled to enable nucleic acid amplification testing for the earlier detection of hepatitis C infection.