Urgent Requests for Clinical Pathology/Hospital Transfusion Laboratory

All requests for Blood and Blood products must be telephoned to Blood Transfusion 4320.

Requests received without an accompanying phone call will NOT be processed. It is the Clinicians responsibility to contact the duty Biomedical Scientist.

Urgent requests for Blood or Blood products must be accompanied by the pink transfusion request form.

All requests for urgent Biochemistry and Haematology must be clearly marked to avoid unnecessary delays. It is not necessary to telephone for urgent Biochemistry and Haematology requests between (07.00hrs and 01.00hrs) provided a yellow urgent request form is used or the ICE form is marked 'URGENT'.

All other urgent specimens are accepted at all times subject to prior arrangement by telephone only by contacting the laboratory or on call BMS.

Urgent Requests for Microbiology Tests and Advice

During normal working hours Monday - Friday 09:00 -17:15 telephone urgent requests to 01305 25(4343).
Out of normal working hours we provide an on-call service for selected urgent tests (please see Microbiology).
Contact the duty on-call technician (for test requests) or the Consultant Microbiologist (for clinical advice) via switchboard.

Important telephone numbers

Urgent requests should be restricted to occasions where they are essential for the immediate management of the patient.

The authorising doctor should be clearly indicated in the request form (legibly, not just initials) together with the Bleep number.

Note BMS staff may refer unusual requests for urgent test calls to the Duty Consultant.

List of Urgent tests

For further information please call the laboratory reception on 01305 25 4331