Plasma Procurement and Self-Sufficiency.

SUMMARY EuroNet-TMS, the European Network of Transfusion Medicine Societies, was constituted in early 2002. During 2003, EuroNet-TMS committees worked on a broad survey aimed at drawing a map of the situation in the European Union (EU) on issues of immediate relevance. Nine questionnaires were drafted by EuroNet-TMS committees and sent out to the seventeen countries who wished to be part of this survey. The results shown here represent a first broad outline of the situation in Europe in terms of plasma procurement and self-sufficiency. Further details are still to be obtained before the official publication of EuroNet-TMS in the second semester of 2004. The data reflect a heterogeneous situation mainly observed in all other fields, most obviously related to discrepancies in the blood transfusion organizations throughout Europe and in their health policies in general. The application of the EU directive on blood in 2005 might affect these data, as general regulations will be the same for all 15 + 10 EU countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]