Routine: 08:00 - 17:00  Monday to Friday.
Extended service: 17:00 - 20:00 Monday to Friday.
Reduced service: 08:00 - 16:00 Saturday and Sunday.

Outside of routine hours, and on Bank Holidays, an on-call service is in operation.

Routine Hours
During routine hours, clinical advice can be sought from Consultant Haematologists via their secretaries on 8428/8429, or by contacting the Haematology Consultant of the day via Switchboard.

For any other enquiries, the laboratory may be contacted directly on 8453 for Haematology matters, 8460 for Coagulation matters, and 8451/8452 for Blood Transfusion matters.

On-call service

Outside of routine hours, clinical advice can be sought from the Consultant Haematologist on-call, who can be contacted via switchboard.

For any other enquiries, there is one member of laboratory staff resident at all times, covering Haematology, Coagulation and Blood Transfusion, and is contactable only on bleep 1151 or via switchboard. Direct telephone calls will not be answered.

During the extended and reduced service times listed above, there are only two members of staff resident (one for Haematology and Coagulation, the other for Blood Transfusion). During these times, bleep 1151 for any Haematology or Transfusion enquiries.

On-call no-bleep policy
The Haematology department runs the on-call service using a 'no bleep' policy. This means that other than for some requests highlighted below, you do not need to bleep the on-call Biomedical Scientist to inform of the sample request. Turnaround times during the on-call service are aimed to be met, however due to reduced staff numbers and potential for unforeseen demand on the service, this may not always be possible.

The exceptions for when you MUST bleep the on-call BMS are :-

• Suspected transfusion reaction
• Investigations for Malaria
• ALL requests for blood & blood products
• If the results have not appeared on the ward terminal within agreed turnaround times

ALL requests must be made using Sunquest ICE where possible so that the results will appear on the ward terminal. Routine work may not be processed during an on-call period.

Blood Transfusion requests are dealt with as part of the Haematology on-call service. Requests for blood products are by nature not routine and the on-call Biomedical Scientist should be contacted when the request is generated. Overnight transfusions of blood products should ideally be reserved for emergency situations only, to reduce the risk of potential mistakes.

For the vast majority of patients who do not have atypical red cell antibodies, blood products can be provided using an 'Electronic Issue' process within 5 minutes if a 'group & save serum' request (GSS) has been processed recently. Please check with the lab first - it may save having to bleed the patient unnecessarily.