In line with the practice of patient blood management, this call for tender aims to encourage the use of good practices to avoid unnecessary transfusions; to ensure that transfusions can be performed at times of need, and to build on past EU projects' results. The long-term objective of this call for tender is to improve bedside practice all over Europe. While in several countries and hospitals, good practices have been developed on patient blood management, this is not standard across the EU. The successful tenderer will therefore need to identify those institutions with good practices, standardise good practices, and implement and disseminate them across Europe.

Specifically, the successful tenderer shall:

1. develop a EU guide for Member States and health professionals to help implement good practices for patient blood management: this shall take into account earlier guides, such as the 'Donor Management Manual' and the 'Manual of Optimal Blood Use', but it shall differ from these in focusing on strategies to minimise individual patients' risk of transfusion;

2. implement patient blood management programmes in 5 teaching hospitals in EU Member States, which shall be evaluated after 12 months;

3. prepare an implementation strategy to help national authorities to disseminate and implement patient blood management in hospitals across the EU.