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Pathology Departments Requesting & Reporting Blood Test Information Phlebotomy Guide Contact us
Requesting & Reporting

Urgent Requests

During normal working hours

Unless the request is coming from an acute ward (and will be treated urgently anyway), for samples requiring urgent analysis, please follow the following instructions.

Out of hours

Outside normal working hours, all samples received will be treated as urgent and there is no need to phone. It is your responsibility to ensure sample is transported to laboratory with minimal delay. Use of the pneumatic air tube system is encouraged if accessible. Please see map of air tube stations.

You should expect a turnaround time of <90 minutes (from receipt of sample in laboratory) for most urgent requests (blood sciences departments) and <60 minutes for Emergency Department requests for renal, LFT and Troponin-T. Some urgent requests e.g. FBC we aim to achieve in <30 minutes.

The following samples are processed in the Microbiology Lab at the RUH:

Please telephone the lab in advance and mark the outside of the specimen bag 'Urgent' for all CSFs and urgent specimens (as above). The lab does not need to be telephoned in advance for blood cultures and antibiotic assays.


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