NHTC Speakers

NZ Blood Service - Te Ratonga Toto O Aotearoa

Sarah Morley - NZBS Chief Medical Officer

Guest Speakers

 Torunn Apelseth, Director Norwegian Centre for Blood Preparedness

The Norwegian blood preparedness project: A whole blood program including civilian walking blood banks for early treatment of patients with life‐threatening bleeding in municipal health care services, ambulance services, and rural hospitals. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/pmid/35751878/

DOI:10.1111/trf.16968

Civilian and military guidelines recommend early balanced transfusion to patients with life-threatening bleeding to improve survival. To provide the best care to patients with hemorrhagic shock in regions with reduced access to evacuation, blood preparedness must be ensured also on a municipal health care level. The primary aim of the Norwegian Blood Preparedness project is to enable rural hospitals, prehospital ambulance services, and municipal health care services to start early balanced blood transfusions for patients with life-threatening bleeding regardless of etiology.

NZBS Transfusion Nurse Specialist and HNZ Clinical Nurse Specialist Team

  Suzi Rishworth - Otago

Suzi joined NZBS in 2003 when the TNS project was first launched. Her role rests at the clinical end of the NZBS ‘vein to vein’ philosophy and focuses upon teaching (including under-graduate and post-graduate programmes), auditing (national and local), policy writing, haemovigilance, incident review, surveillance, CQI, liaison and support. Suzi is based in the NZBS Blood Bank at Dunedin Hospital and covers the Otago and Southland region. Her passion is teaching and translating specialty knowledge into manageable and useable fractions to influence change, enhance transfusion practice, and protect patient safety.

Prior to joining NZBS Suzi spent 14 years working predominately within the fields of Oncology, Haematology and Palliative Care both in New Zealand and the UK, and District Nursing in Central London. She undertook post graduate studies in Cancer Care at the University of Manchester, while working at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London, during the 1990s and post graduate clinical teaching papers via the University of Canterbury early 2010s. Suzi is a member of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion (ANZBST) and during her tenure has been actively involved in various ANZSBT sub-committees. 

Christopher Corkery - Waikato

Christopher became a Registered CpRN in 1987 having drifted towards medicine following a less than enthusiastic career as an electrician. His initial years were in general medicine with extended periods in oncology and haematology.  Following this, his nursing experience included a year in Saudia Arabia on a Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, then five years in Germany (Frankfurt and Cologne) in an Oncology and Haematology Unit at the University of Cologne.  Christopher returned to work in Haematology in New Zealand for a further three years before joining the NZ Blood Service in 2003 where he has been a Transfusion Nurse Specialist since inception and contributed greatly to the development of the role.

This will be Christophers last meeting as he retires later this month.

Susan Mercer - Canterbury

Susan joined the NZBS Transfusion Nurse Specialist team in late 2017, based in Christchurch covering the wider Canterbury region, West Coast and Nelson-Marlborough.  She is a member of both the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) and, Australian & New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion (ANZSBT) where she currently represents the TNS team on the ANZSBT Transfusion Practitioners Working Group.

Originally from Otago, Susan completed my Bachelor of Nursing in 2004 as a mature student - a hangover from joining the RNZAF as a Medic aged 17 and then supporting her family in administration roles in electricity and legal industries.  With an immediate interest in acute care, she was supported to work in Dunedin Hospital Colorectal & Vascular Surgeries' High Dependency Unit as a new graduate, completing her post-graduate Certificate in Acute Care.  Susan then gained further experience with rural Australian nursing contracts 2009-2010 before returning to NZ to train as a Critical Care and ICU Outreach nurse in Christchurch Hospital's Intensive Care Unit.  Susan continues to work casually in Christchurch Hospital Emergency Department.

 Fiona King - TNS, Wellington

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 Suzy Lockwood - TNS, Palmerston North

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 Katerina Hodgson - TNS, Auckland / Starship

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 Soyoung Choi Maxwell - TNS, Auckland

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 Lucia Best - TNS, Waikato

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   Gustavo Duarte - Clinical Director Patient Services; Transfusion Medicine Specialist

Gustavo Duarte was trained in clinical haematology and transfusion medicine in Brazil. He has been working with Transfusion Medicine and PBM implementation for the last 15 years. In New Zealand, he is the New Zealand Blood Service Clinical Director of Patient Services, overseeing activities involving external customers, such as therapeutic apheresis, stem cell transplant, therapeutic venesection, and blood banks.

    Richard Charlewood - Transfusion Medicine Specialist, Auckland

Richard Charlewood trained as a Haematologist in the UK and South Africa. He has worked as a Transfusion Medicine Specialist at New Zealand Blood Service for over 20 years. He has a special interest in computer systems and infectious diseases and is NZBS’s lead specialist for the donation accreditation laboratory that performs the infectious diseases testing as well as the blood management systems.

   Gavin Cho - Clinical Director Blood Plasma & Laboratories, Transfusion Medicine Specialist

Gavin trained in Haematology in Auckland (including at NZBS) before heading to Bristol for 2 years of research. After that I worked as a Haematologist in Northwest London for 9 years where I was the consultant responsible for transfusion, and clinical lead for haemoglobinopathies. I was a member of the London Regional Transfusion Committee (which covered about 90 hospitals) for a number of years, including a couple as the chair. Then I moved to NHS Blood and Transplant for 3 years in the blood donation. I have been back at NZBS for the last 5 years as a Transfusion Medicine Specialist and more recently Clinical Director for Blood, Plasma, and Laboratories.