Advise for Internal Users – Urgent Microbiology and Virology Samples Out of Hours
IMPORTANT: The Microbiology & Virology Services is based at Freeman Hospital and urgent samples from other sites require the sender to organise urgent transport to Freeman.
The following procedure is currently in operation for Urgent Microbiology or Virology samples out of hours:
You must telephone the on-call Biomedical Scientist (BMS) via Switchboard if you require a specimen to be processed out of normal working hours. A BMS is not always present in the hospital throughout the night, and if you just send the specimen to the laboratory without informing the BMS, it will not be processed until the next working day.
The only exception to this rule is when you take blood cultures out of hours; these are taken to the on-site laboratory, so there is no need to telephone the BMS.
Urgent requests sent to the laboratory out of hours must contain all relevant details including the name and telephone number of the person to whom the result should be reported.
Non-urgent samples taken out of hours at both RVI and Freeman should be taken to the respective Blood Sciences laboratory reception, where night-shift staff will regularly refrigerate them throughout the night (except blood culture samples which will be kept at room temperature).
If in any doubt about the correct way to transport a specimen, please refer to the laboratory Specimen Acceptance policy which is available on the Trust intranet.