Characteristics and Trends in the Work of the Blood Service of the Russian Federation in 2016–2020

Introduction. Ensuring a sustainable supply of safe donor blood is crucial for strategic issues and challenges. The evaluation of donor characteristics as well as the volume of components harvested and issued to medical organizations in the Russian Federation is a topical task for the national blood service.Aim — to analyze the performance indicators of the national blood service for the procurement and provision of donated blood and its components to medical organizations from 2016–2020.Methods. Data on over 6.5 million donors who donated blood in Russia during 2016–2020 were analyzed. Data were obtained from Blood Service report form No. 39 “Blood products and derivatives”. Descriptive statistics were used during analysis.Results. A decrease of the number of blood donors per thousand population was shown (from 9.68 to 8.26, р < 0.0001). There was a decrease of the number of first-time donors and of the number of repeat donors (by 23 and 9.3 %, respectively) within studied period. Regular donor quantum increased from 71 to 76 %. The share of volunteer blood donors from 2016 to 2020 throughout the Russian Federation remained stable and amounted to 97.7–98.0 %. The total number of donations decreased by 6.0 % due to a significant decrease in the number of donations of automatic apheresis plasma (from 507,396 in 2016 to 388,742 in 2020, p < 0.001), at the same time, a significant increase in the number of donations platelets was noted (from 83,285 donations in 2016 to 126,574 in 2020, p < 0.001). During the follow-up period, there was an increase from 2.0 in 2016 to 2.21 in 2020 (10 %) in the average number of donations of blood components made by donors per year. Despite the decrease in the total number of donations in the analyzed period, the volume of blood components transferred for clinical use increased. The largest increase in blood components transferred at the request of medical organizations was noted for the concentrate of donor platelets (from 702,732 units in 2016 to 1,072,830 in 2020, by 34.5 %) and erythrocyte- containing blood components (from 491,791 liters in 2016 to 555,909 liters in 2020, by 13.5 %). A general trend was noted both towards a decrease in the frequency of detection of markers of bloodborne infections (from 16.8 to 7.7 %), and in individual infections. When analyzing the frequency of detection of infection markers, a significant difference was obtained in the group of newly registered and repeated donors (50,114 and 25,814, р < 0,001).Conclusion. The decrease of the number of cases of detection of infection markers and the redistribution of blood collection in accordance with the changing demands of medical organizations demonstrates a targeted strategy for improving the safety of transfusions, improving the quality of recruiting activities, and improving the principles of lean production of blood components.