Changes may be coming to Canada’s blood safety regime after PHAC announces end of one program

2026 will see the sunsetting of a component of Canada’s blood safety system, but parts of the program will continue until next year as experts reassess Canada’s blood safety system. The Public Health Association of Canada (PHAC) announced in August 2024 that it would will stop funding the Blood Safety Contribution Program on March 31, 2026. The national program records and assesses hospital-based transfusion adverse events, injuries and errors. The announcement caused concern among Canada hematology and blood safety experts, but a February update from the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine says elements of the program will continue for the next year while Canada’s blood safety regime undergoes study. PHAC and provincial and territorial governments are working to ensure ongoing access to the data repository and maintain elements of the program until March 31, 2027, the update states.Canadian Blood Services hired Risk Sciences International, an Ottawa-based consulting firm, to support a project called the Canadian Recipient Hemovigilance System Renewal initiative. Its work is being informed by a group of experts from government, medicine, patient organizations, Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Quebec. PHAC also plans to hold a conference on Canada’s blood safety regime in 2026.The Blood Safety Contribution Program was initially established in response to Canada’s tainted blood tragedy in the 1980s, where up to 20,000 people were infected with hepatitis C and 1,100 people were infected with HIV. The Krever Commission’s final report in 1997 recommended a system to report transfusion adverse events or reactions.“A pan-Canadian system for tracking blood transfusions ensures that small trends over time are tracked and detected in a timely way,” explained Dr. Andrew Shih in an October 2025 email to the Medical Post. Dr. Shih is the director of the Ontario Transfusion transmitted injuries surveillance system (TTISS) program and an associate professor at McMaster University in Hamilton.The rationale for PHAC’s decision to sunset the program was that it did not align with PHAC’s mandates; that provinces and territories have adequate resources to continue to collect information on transfusion adverse reactions; that it was not processing data in a timely fashion to inform decision making and that monitoring by Health Canada-Canada Vigilance was sufficient to meet recommendations in the Krever Commission report. Some of these conclusions may have been drawn from a February 2023 report by the Office of Audit and Evaluation of Health Canada and PHAC.A number of groups have been protesting the move since it was announced, including the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine and the National Advisory Committee on Blood and Blood Products, which reported “extreme distress” with the PHAC’s decision to sunset the program. The Network of Rare Blood Disorder Organizations penned another letter, as did patient groups and the Association of Hemophilia Directors of Canada. On July 25, 2025, leaders of the Canadian blood systems, Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec issued a joint letter urging PHAC to reconsider the decision. The groups all maintain that PHAC did not consult with the transfusion-service or patient community prior to making the decision.The concern is that in cancelling the Blood Safety Contribution Program, the remaining elements of Canada’s hemovigilance regime would cover a more limited range of adverse events or errors/accidents of interest. Detractors say the focus of surveillance would be on the blood in the container instead of monitoring the full end-to-end process of transfusion. It may not capture harms related to product-patient interactions.The Blood Safety Contribution Program cost PHAC $2.19 million annually, with a December 2024 letter by the National Advisory Committee on Blood and Blood Products noting it was originally $4 million a year when it was started in 1988. Dr. Christine Cserti-Gazdewich, a transfusion medicine physician and clinical hematologist in Toronto, started an online petition urging PHAC to rescind their decision to sunset the program. As of March 2026, the petition has 1,692 signatures. The recommendations from the consensus conference and Risk Science International’s final report will help inform what is next for the future of hemovigilance in Canada.“Collaboration across all blood system partners is essential as we determine the optimal next steps for hemovigilance in Canada, and secure one of our essential health resources,” Dr. Shih wrote in October.Canadian Blood Services noted it was in full discussions with all stakeholders after PHAC’s announcement about sunsetting the Blood Safety Contribution Program. “We want to ensure ongoing blood system safety, and we recognize the program’s vital role in national patient hemovigilance. Hemovigilance is the cornerstone of blood safety, and we look forward to further dialogue to uphold this standard in Canada,” it said in a statement to the Medical Post in October.

Changes may be coming to Canada’s blood safety regime after PHAC announces end of one program

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