Opening times
We are open for the receipt of specimens and the analysis of the majority of routine tests:
• From 09:00 to 18:30 Monday to Friday
• From 09.00 to 13.00 Saturday.
Out of hours:
• Between 18:30 and 09:00 Monday to Friday
• 12:00 Saturday to 09:00 Monday
• Bank Holidays
During out of hour times, the laboratory is staffed by a single biomedical scientist to provide a service for emergency and essential hospital test requests.
Urgent Requests
The majority of routine tests have a turnaround time of 2 to 3 hours from the time of sample receipt. Providing a sample is received before 17.00, a result is normally available the same day.
We provide an urgent analysis service for a limited repertoire of tests if essential for the immediate management of a critical patient. We aim to have results available within 60 minutes of receipt of specimen.
Procedure for RD&E Hospital in-patient emergency requesting:
During normal working hours (inc. Saturday morning and Bank Holidays):
• The doctor must phone Ext. 2936 or Bleep 226 with urgent request details, contact name and number so we know where to telephone abnormal results
• Mark the ‘Urgent’ box in the appropriate area of the hospital request form
• Send sample(s) to the laboratory by the quickest route (pneumatic tube system or in person). Urgent specimens from the Heavitree site require a porter and/or taxi.
Outside normal working hours:
• The doctor must contact the on-call biomedical scientist via the hospital switchboard or Bleep 226 (biochemistry) or Bleep 227 (haematology/blood transfusion) providing urgent request details, contact name and number so we know where to telephone abnormal results
• Mark the ‘Urgent’ box in the appropriate area of the hospital request form
• Send sample(s) to the laboratory by the quickest route (pneumatic tube system or in person). Urgent specimens from the Heavitree site require a porter and/or taxi.
NB. A telephone call is essential – failure to telephone the laboratory with details of the urgent request will result in samples being treated as category 3 samples, and will be accorded priority on the next scheduled batch and abnormal results telephoned as soon as they are authorised.
Forms marked with “please phone” are treated as category 3 samples. They are accorded priority on the next scheduled batch and results telephoned as soon as they are authorised.
Samples from ITU, ED AMU & NNU are automatically assigned category 1 status & treated as urgent.
Procedure for GP emergency requesting:
• The GP should e-mail us with urgent request details, contact name and number so we know where to telephone results
• Use a highlighter to mark the ‘Urgent’ box in the appropriate area of the GP request form so we can easily identify the sample
• Pack and send urgent sample(s) to the laboratory in a separate bag from routine patient samples.
DO NOT ABUSE THE EMERGENCY SERVICE; IT IS VERY COSTLY AND DEMANDING ON STAFF. IF THIS SERVICE IS USED INAPPROPRAITELY IT BECOMES SATURATED AND TURNAOUNDTIME OF URGENT SAMPLES SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASES.
External referrals
We welcome external referrals for any of our test repertoire. We will process any sample referred to us meeting our sample labelling criteria. Each request accepted by the laboratory for examination(s) is considered an agreement (ISO15189:2012). To arrange a formal Service Level Agreement please contact the laboratory manager.
Requesting Categories
Sample requests are triaged into 3 categories.
Category 1 – ‘STAT’ or ‘1 hour urgent’
These samples take priority over all other samples. These specimens are treated as genuinely urgent, and will be processed immediately on arrival. However, in order to process urgent samples, the requesting Doctor must follow the procedures as outlined in ‘Urgent requests’.
Samples from specific wards: ITU, A&E, EMU, CDU & NNU are automatically assigned category 1 status & treated as urgent.
Urgent request results are not usually telephoned, but are available on ward terminals within one hour. If results are abnormal, they fall within our telephone policy and are telephoned as soon as they are validated.
Category 2 – Waiting patient or ward staff.
Suitable only for short turnaround time tests.
A sample from a waiting patient or ward staff should be brought to the Blood Sciences laboratory and identified as a sample from staff or patient intent on waiting for the result. The sample is processed through the urgent system and undergoes immediate labelling, booking-in and centrifugation, then is taken to the appropriate section for analysis. An analyser print out is given to the person waiting.
Category 3 – ‘Three hour urgent’
Samples that are received with the urgent box marked, but no prior urgent telephone request had been made.
These samples are allocated to the routine reception area, but are given priority over other routine samples. The results are not telephoned unless they are abnormal and fall within our telephone policy. Results should be available on ward terminals within three hours.
Add on tests
If add-on tests are required, please note the following information:
- Patient samples are only kept for a maximum of 5 days following receipt (2 days for EDTA samples).
- You must identify the date of the sample you wish to add additional tests onto, stating the add-on tests you require.
- Please be aware that in small volume samples there may not be enough sample left to conduct additional tests. If this occurs, we will contact you to advise that the patient will need to be re-bled.
Requests made from within the hospital:
- Please use add-on slips available from the ward clerk of each ward
- Add-on slips can be sent to the Blood Sciences Laboratory via the pneumatic pod system or can be brought to Blood Sciences Reception in person
- Alternatively, you can request add-on tests using our add-on e-mail address
rde-tr.bsaddon@nhs.net
Please note this add-on email service is only available Monday – Friday 09:00 – 17:00 hours
Requests from Primary Care:
- GPs please request add-on tests using our add-on e-mail address:
rde-tr.bsaddon@nhs.net
Order of Draw
Telephoned Results
Results falling outside of the limits below will be telephoned to the requestor or requesting location wherever possible. For GP requests every endeavour will be made to contact the surgery within working hours. Devon Doctors will be contacted out of working hours.
| Parameter Lower limit Upper limit |
| Ammonia 30 mmol/L |
| Amylase 300 u/L |
| CSF glucose 2.0 mmol/L 6.0 mmol/L |
| Calcium (corrected) 1.60 mmol/L 3.00 mmol/L |
| Carbamazepine 20 mg/L |
| Creatine kinase 450 iu/L |
| Cortisol 100 nmol/L |
| Creatinine (Not renal patients) 500 mmol/L |
| CRP (GP only) 300 mg/L |
| Digoxin 2.3 µg/L |
| Gases All results |
| Glucose 2.5 mmol/L 25.0 mmol/L |
| Lactate 2.4 mol/L |
| Lithium 1.4 mmol/L |
| Magnesium 0.50 mmol/L 1.50 mmol/L |
| Neonatal bilirubin 300 mmol/L |
| Paracetamol 35 mg/L |
| Phenytoin 25 mg/L |
| Phosphate 0.50 mmol/L 4.00 mmol/L |
| Potassium 2.8 mmol/L 6.4 mmol/L |
| Salicylate 70 mg/L |
| Sodium 120 mmol/L 150 mmol/L |
| Theophylline 23 mg/L |
| Troponin T (GP only) 14 ng/L |
| Urate 1000 mmol/L |
| Urea (Not renal patients) 33.0 mmol/L |
