Opening hours

Blood Sciences

The core blood sciences service is open 24/7 365 providing most routine tests. Specialist services are open 08:30 to 17:00 Monday to Friday. Please see the test directory for specific test hours of availability.

Blood Sciences has a policy of telephoning clinically abnormal results which may impact on patient welfare and management. This applies whenever they present, regardless of the time, and will endeavour to notify service users as promptly as possible.

Blood Transfusion

The blood transfusion service on both sites is available 24/7 365 days.

Cellular Pathology

Routine laboratory hours

The laboratory is open during routine working hours as follows:

Monday to Friday 08:00 to 18.00 hrs

Saturday 08.00 to 12.30 hrs

Clinical advice on ordering of examinations and on interpretation of examination results for healthcare professionals can be obtained by contacting us for Cytopathology, Histopathology or Neuropathology between 08.30 and 17.00 hrs weekdays, and 09.00 and 12.00 hrs on Saturdays.

Out of hours service

The Department of Cellular Pathology does not provide a consultant on call service.

A biomedical scientist is available to provide general advice on technical and scientific issues.

Contact Newcastle Hospitals Trust switchboard:

Switchboard

Any requirement outside normal working hours must be arranged during the working day with consultants of the appropriate pathology specialist teams who will advise on clinically urgent requests.

Genetics

Northern Genetics is available 8:30am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday.

Microbiology and Virology

Microbiology and Virology services offers a 24/7 service.

Microbiology core hours are:

Monday to Friday: 8:30am to 8:00pm

The department is open with a more limited staffing and test repertoire during the following hours:

Saturday: 8:00am to 1:00pm

Sunday: 8:00am to 12:00pm

The Regional Mycobacteriology Laboratory and the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory are open as above except for weekends where the opening hours are during the following times:

Saturday: 8:30am to 12:30pm.

Sunday: Urgent Service

Outside core hours the service concentrates on urgent and clinically important tests via an on call staff rota. This information can be accessed via calling Hospital Switchboard. All urgent calls for out of hours testing should go via switchboard for Medical Microbiologist or Virologist.

Switchboard Contact us

NEHODS

NEHODS Laboratory Working Hours to Monday to Friday 08:30 to 17:30

Out of hours – A weekend service is available for clinically urgent requests. This is where there is an immediate need to start treatment. This service is accessed by contacting the on-call consultant haematologist on call through the Newcastle Hospitals switchboard. This should be done before the sample is taken.