Update information
February 2026: Changes have been made to align this quality standard with the updated NICE guideline on blood transfusion. The population in statement 2 has been amended to align with the updated guideline. Outcome measures have been removed throughout as they do not have a data source.
Minor changes since publication
August 2024: We amended quality statement 1 to clarify that the area of quality improvement is iron supplementation for pre-operative iron-deficiency anaemia, and we removed a process measure to reflect this clarification. We amended quality statements 1 and 2 to improve measurability by using receive instead of offer.
April 2024: We reviewed the quality standard and amended the wording for local data sources to reflect national sources of data where relevant. We added examples of elective surgeries expected to have moderate blood loss to the definition in statement 2. We also removed structure measures.
May 2018: A correction has been made to the definitions section of statement 1 on the use of intravenous iron supplementation.