Working with youth very rewarding Award was well timed

“I’m delighted to have received the award,” says Peter Flanagan, whose ONZM was conferred for his services to blood transfusion.

“I think it is particularly nice that it has been made this year as it will be the 25th anniversary of the New Zealand Blood service on 1 July.

“It is an important year for the service.

“I like to think that this award recognises all the work the New Zealand Blood Service does.

“90,000 plus individuals donate blood each year in New Zealand. In many ways they are the people that ensure that the New Zealand Blood Service survives and prospers,” he says.

Dr Flanagan was the first National Medical Director of the New Zealand Blood Service when it was established in 1998 and was in that role until 2019.

He played a key role in developing it from 21 hospital-based blood services into the single national organisation it is today.

He also played a pivotal part in improving the New Zealand Blood Service to the point where it is now recognised as one of the best models in the world.

Dr Flanaghan has supported and informed the Ministry of Health on policy related to blood transfusion safety and was closely involved in the transition to an integrated hospital blood bank network.

He is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology at Auckland University.

He has been a member of the World Health Organisation Expert Advisory Panel on Transfusion Medicine since 2009 and a member of Expert Committees in the Council of Europe.

Dr Flanagan is an Honorary Member of the International Society of Blood Transfusion, serving as President and Chair of the Standing Committee on Ethics, where he led a comprehensive review of the Society’s Code of Ethics.

He is a Life Member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion and in 2017 gave the Ruth Sanger Oration, the Society’s highest honour.