From discussions with colleagues across UK it appears that very much time and effort is being placed into working out the MU for a blood group result. My questions are:
1. What is the purpose of identifying MU for a blood group?
2. A blood group is a qualitative test not quantitative, so wouldn't MU be irrelevent?
3. If an MU is required, how do you calculate/ factor in sampling errors from the clinical areas to address wrong blood in tube errors?
4. If an MU is needed- will this be stated in the User Manual? If not, why not?
5. How would an MU be written on a report or in the User Manual- eg Patient is group A+ ( or there is a X % chance they may not be ???!)
6. What is the clinical significance of working out the MU for this test? Is this actually going to give anyone ( clinicians/ staff/ patients) confidence in the process?

I'm often wrong about things, but really want to understand WHY this is required ? Again, are we ALL misinterpreting the clauses/ NCs etc and creating more unnecessary work within the labs , many of who are already under staffing capacity and can't get important basic improvement tasks done?

Some clarification would be helpful.

Many thanks
Rashmi