Home delivery for plasma protein products now in place

Montreal, May 21, 2020 – The Provinces and Territories announced this week a home delivery service for plasma protein products and their alternatives, including coagulation products. The service is funded by Canadian Blood Services. Decisions to offer the service and eligibility criteria, however, will be made by each province, territory or hospital.

A similar service began in Quebec, funded by Héma-Québec, on April 1.

Professional pharmacy delivery services have been contracted to make the deliveries.

The creation of home delivery services came about following advocacy by the Network of Rare Blood Disorder Organizations (NRBDO) with support from its member groups, notably Canadian Hemophilia Society (CHS) and its Quebec Chapter (CHSQ), Canadian Immunodeficiencies Patient Organization (CIPO) and the Association des Patients Immunodéficients du Québec (APIQ), and GBS-CIDP Foundation of Canada.

The goal is to reduce the risk from COVID-19 to patients, caregivers and health care providers by reducing the number of visits to hospitals for product pick-up. This is fully consistent with public health guidelines in place across Canada. At a time when most non-urgent in-person medical consultations are on hold, it makes sense to also limit hospital visits to simply restock home inventories.

Products will be distributed, as usual, from treatment centres, transfusion medicine services and hospital blood banks.

The service, to be offered only during the COVID-19 pandemic, is intended for all plasma protein products and their substitutes—for example, coagulation products, immune globulins and C1-esterase inhibitor—that are infused/injected by patients at home. There is no cost to either the hospital or the patient.

Final decisions as to eligibility are made by hospitals’ transfusion medicine services and/or prescribing clinicians.

These are some of the eligibility requirements that have been announced.

• The first-line option is to make use of alternative strategies put in place by hospitals; for example, curbside pick-up.
• If these do not exist, the second-line option is for patients who should not be exposed to hospital contacts to designate another person to pick up the products in their place.
• If neither of these options is feasible, patients are eligible for home delivery if they:
  • are immune-compromised;
  • have other underlying chronic conditions;
  • are over 65 years of age (70 in Quebec);
  • normally rely on public transportation to get to hospital.

Note that eligibility criteria may vary from province to province and from hospital to hospital.

The CHS recommends that patients/caregivers who are interested contact their treatment centre to find out if this service is offered and if they are eligible.

The CHS would like to commend both Héma-Québec and Canadian Blood Services for understanding the need to create and fund this service.

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For more information, contact:

Canadian Hemophilia Society
chs@hemophilia.ca
1-800-668-2686

or your provincial chapter.