Welcome to the Exeter Clinical Laboratory International website
NHS logo

– 24 Hour Urine Collections

Specimen collection instructions to be given to patients

1. On waking, empty your bladder and discard the urine. Note the time when this is done. This is the “starting time”. Write this time and the date in the space provided on the label of the urine container.

2. Collect all of the urine passed until the same time on the following morning. Empty your bladder at this time and add all of the urine passed to the container, so that a full 24 hour urine has been collected. Write this time and the date in the space provided on the label of the urine container.

3. Remember to collect urine before opening your bowels, or you may forget and lose some of the collection in the toilet.

4. If you make a mistake, throw away all of the urine collected and start again on the following morning.

University of Exeter logo
UKAS Medical logo
Royal Devon University Healthcare logo