The NHS Cord Blood Bank The NHS Cord Blood Bank was set up in 1996 to collect, process, store and supply cord blood. It is a public cord blood bank and part of the NHS. The first unrelated transplant (the patient was not related to the donor) occurred in February 1998 Cord blood collected for the NHS Cord Blood Bank is collected by specially trained and dedicated staff. It is collected from the following hospitals – Barnet General, Northwick Park, Watford, Luton and Dunstable and St George’s in Tooting Trained NHS Cord Blood Bank staff contact mothers who have registered to donate before they have their baby to ask some simple lifestyle questions and to obtain verbal consent for the collection, testing and use of the donation The NHS Cord Blood Bank has issued cord blood units to 22 countries. This is a reciprocal arrangement internationally enabling patients worldwide to get the best treatment The NHS Cord Blood Bank is accredited by NetCord-FACT and licensed by the Human Tissue Authority
NHSBT Tissue Services NHSBT Tissue Services is a multi-tissue bank based at our state-of-the-art facility in Liverpool. The service takes consent from donor families, retrieves, processes and stores skin, bone, tendons, heart valves, arteries, stem cells and amnion for use in a range of different surgical specialties. The facility also has a Tissue Development Laboratory which researches and develops new tissue products to improve patient outcomes. During 2009/2010 NHSBT Tissue Services provided over 8,500 tissue products for lifesaving and life-enhancing surgery.