This kit has been developed to support clinical delivery assistance at the Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care level (CEmONC) provided within health facilities.

This kit includes both disposable and reusable supplies and is intended for use by trained laboratory technicians when performing safe blood transfusion after testing for HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. 

The contents of this kit should be utilised as part of a health facility's blood transfusion safety protocol, seeking to ensure the safe and rational use of blood products and prevention of bloodborne infection. 

Context of use

Adapted from UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) guidance, this kit is one part of the Referral/surgical obstetric level (CEmONC) serving the needs of 150,000 people for 3 months (UNFPA, 2019) kit series. 

For further details of the other kits relevant to the provision of a CEmONC service, see the following: Obstetric Surgery and Severe Obstetric Complications, Reusable Equipment and Obstetric Surgery and Severe Obstetric Complications, Drugs and Disposable Equipment. 

Together these kits have been designed to support the provision of lifesaving reproductive health services in acute humanitarian settings, primarily within low and middle-income countries. They may also be helpful to meeting the emergency healthcare needs in higher-income countries during certain circumstances (e.g. natural disasters). 

The contents of this kit have been specifically compiled for use in humanitarian settings where the accessibility of emergency obstetric medical and surgical care has been drastically reduced, or where demand for such care significantly surpasses the capacity of local hospital services.

When medically necessary in such circumstances, patients will be referred to the nearest available functioning hospital for emergency or specialist treatment, which may result in these referral level facilities requiring further equipment and supplies. 

This kit has therefore been developed to help support referral hospitals in such instances to provide a sufficient level of service to this additional caseload of patients. It should be used in a hospital or clinical setting where trained personnel have access to basic laboratory facilities.

Scaling

This kit has been designed to assist in the provision of a CEmONC service for a population of 150,000 people over a 3-month period. 

Its contents are intended to be used in the provision of care to individuals requiring blood transfusion, as may be indicated during delivery or in the provision of emergency post-partum care.

A rapid assessment of the local situation is advised to confirm the need for and suitability of reproductive health kits prior to kit procurement. This will include a review of existing healthcare resources and health facility capacity as well as an assessment of the expected health needs specific to the target population. If possible, this assessment should utilize available pre-crisis demographic and services data.

Source: Inter-Agency Emergency Reproductive Health Kits for Use in Humanitarian Settings, 6th edition (UNFPA, 2019, p.55-56)

Information materials and guidelines intended to accompany kit: 

• Clinical transfusion process and patient safety checklist, WHO, EN/FR/AR/SP
• Blood donation and transfusion, adapted from US Centers for Disease Control/Australian Red Cross, UNFPA, EN/FR/SP/AR
• Stock card, UNFPA 2019, EN/FR (2 copies of each)

Please refer to kit attachments for the documents that are currently available for convenient download.