Our study confirms high compliance (>99·7%) to the 12-month deferral for male-to-male sex in Australia providing reassuring evidence for the efficacy of the screening question. Issues of 'privacy' and 'discomfort' associated with disclosure suggest the use of validated audio computer-assisted structured interview as a possible option for improving compliance with the donor questionnaire.

The prevalence of noncompliance is relatively low but our estimate is likely to be a lower bound. The selected high-risk behaviors were substantially less common in blood donors compared to the general population suggesting that self-deferral is effective. Nevertheless, a focus on further minimization should improve the blood safety.

Both the prevalence and the incidence of TTIs in Australian blood donors remained low, with a steady or declining trend for most infections except active syphilis. The lower prevalence of TTIs in blood donors compared with the general population reflects the effectiveness of donor education and donor selection measures in Australia.

We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the safety of non‐obstetric surgery during pregnancy by studying 106 pregnant women who underwent non‐obstetric surgery at a regional Australian hospital over a 10‐year period. The study showed that maternal and foetal outcomes were comparable to that of the general population. Subgroup analysis did not demonstrate any statistically significant differences between groups, except for an increased rate of delivery by caesarean section in pregnant women who underwent laparotomy compared to those who underwent laparoscopy.