We provide a diagnostic Haematology laboratory service, as well as a transfusion service to the hospital, to GPs, to Queen Mary's Hospital and to the wider Primary Care Trust, the scope of services include:
- Routine Haematology
This section of the department comprises of four DxH analysers to perform full blood count and reticulocyte investigations, two IL- TOP 700 analysers for a routine coagulation screen (PT, INR, APTT, APTR and derived fibrinogen) and a Starrsed ESR analyser. These are used as a primary screen for malignancies or can be used to monitor treatments such as the INR for warfarin dosage.
- Special Haematology
This section is primarily manual testing and includes haemoglobinopathy, malaria screening and identification, iron stains and red cell morphology investigations.
- Transfusion
The blood transfusion laboratory, by means of fully automated blood grouping analysers, perform routine blood grouping and antibody screening. Manual techniques within the department include antibody identification, direct agglutination test, kleihauers and phenotyping. By means of these tests, the blood transfusion laoratory is able to provide safe blood and blood products for patients including red cells, platelets, cryopreciptate, plasma, anti-D (for Rh negative pregnant women) and beriplex (reversal of warfarin).
Useful Information
Who is at risk
Serious underlying health conditions put people at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19. This is particularly the case for people with a weakened immune system, including the following groups.
- People having chemotherapy, or who've had chemotherapy in the last three months
- People having immunotherapy or other antibody treatments for cancer
- People having targeted cancer treatments that can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase or PARP inhibitors
- People who had an autologous HSCT (using your own stem cells) within the last year*
- People who had an allogeneic HSCT (using donor stem cells) within the last two years or who are still having immunosuppression drugs*
- People with chronic graft versus host disease (GvHD)*
- People with some types of blood cancer which affect the immune system, such as chronic leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma, even if no treatment is being given
- People with rare diseases and inborn errors of metabolism that significantly increase the risk of infections such as sickle cell disease
Please talk to your healthcare team if you are not sure about your immune system.
* Guidance from NICE April 2020
Keeping safe and Shielding
Shielding is a practice used to protect extremely vulnerable people from coming into contact with coronavirus.
See the website below for full guidance:
Guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19
Getting support
Ask friends, family or a support network in your community to help you get food and medicines. Volunteer schemes are in place across the country to support local communities. Contact your local council for information about what is available in your area.
In addition to local support, the Government is providing support for people who are extremely vulnerable:
Get coronavirus support as a clinically extremely vulnerable person
Mental Health and Wellbeing
For advice about taking care of your mental health while you are isolated at home, visit the NHS website:
Looking after your mental health - nhs.uk
Appointments
Most outpatient appointments will be conducted over the telephone instead of face to face. We will contact you to let you know if your appointment has been changed. You will be telephoned at around the same time as your scheduled face to face appointment.
In some cases, face to face appointments in the Outpatients department will be necessary.
If you need to cancel an appointment you can do so online HERE.
Your treatment
We are doing our best to maintain our service and your care and wellbeing are our top priority. We will contact you if there is any proposal to change your treatment schedule. In some cases, your treatment might be delayed.
Continue to take all your usual medications unless your doctor or specialist nurse tells you not to.
Further information
Wherever possible, the department participates in external quality assurance schemes provided by the National External Quality Assessment Scheme (NEQAS).
The majority of laboratory assays provided by the laboratory are accredited by UKAS to ISO 15189:2012 Standard.
For further details, please refer to UKAS Schedule of Accreditation for Haematology and Transfusion.
Useful Information
The following websites provide information for different patient groups.
Further information: https://b-s-h.org.uk/about-us/news/covid-19-updates/
