Aims
The department of Pathology adheres to the principles of patient-focused laboratory medicine, adopting a proactive stance on optimising the delivery of medical laboratory services to give maximum efficiency and effectiveness to health care.
Policies and Statements
- Read our quality-policy
- Policy on Protection of Personal Informaton
- Policy on Self Requesting and result delivery to patients
Accreditation
The Pathology laboratory is assessed by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) which is the sole accreditation body recognised by government to assess,against internationally agreed standards (ISO 15189). All our laboratories have been assessed for ISO 15189 and have been recommended for accreditation. All laboratories have retained the previous accreditation standard Clinical Pathology Accreditation (CPA).
Accreditation ensures that the laboratory provides a high quality service to defined standards.
Biochemistry
- Accredited to CPA ref 0125
- Recommended for ISO 15189 ref 8342
Haematology & blood transfusion
- Accredited to CPA ref 0277
- Recommended for ISO 15189 ref 8342
- MHRA compliance (Blood Transfusion)
Cellular Pathology
- Accredited to CPA ref 3060
- Recommended for ISO 15189 ref 8062
Microbiology
- Accredited to CPA ref 0783
- Recommended for ISO 15189 ref 8063
External Quality Assessment
All departments take part in the National External Quality Assessment schemes. Samples are sent from a reference laboratory for examination, we perform the tests and return the results. Our performance is compared nationally with other laboratories in the scheme and also with previous works carried out by us. This gives confidence that our results do not vary over time and are similar to those obtained from other laboratories.
Useful links
Labtests Online – a public service that explains Pathology tests for patients
The National Blood Service website – if you wish to donate blood