Who can collect the umbilical cord blood?  

Who should perform the stem cell collection and what happens if my Hospital and/or Doctor and/or Midwife refuses to do it?

The collection must be peformed by a trained healthcare professional.

The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) states that :

All maternity units that collect cord blood will need to act under a Human Tissue Authority (HTA) licence that will ensure:

• Staff have training in collecting cord blood, raising standards and making sure that best possible quality of sample is taken.
• Procedures which will help prevent any medical attention being drawn away from mother or child during collection.
• A system is in place to make sure that the cord blood cells are traceable from collection to their use in treatments. 
  

Smart Cells' are able to provide your maternity unit with the necessary licence by way of a third party agreement between the unit and ourselves.  Please contact our customer service department for further information.

If your healthcare professional refuses to make the collection, we have a service package which makes alternative arrangements using qualified healthcare professionals through our Smart Cells Phlebotomy service.