Blood Transfusion

The pages in this section outline general information concerning the department. This includes team contacts and telephone numbers, details of tests and other services and the turnaround time for tests. Although laboratory turnaround times are shown, experience has indicated that unexpected circumstances may result in delays in the transmission of results.

Out of Hours

The Blood Transfusion and Haematology Biomedical Scientist out of hours can be contacted via telephone number 01226 432628 or 01226 432862 or by bleep number 205. All urgent out of hours requests must be phoned in.

The Consultant Haematologists are available via the hospital switchboard – ask for the Consultant Haematologist on-call.

The Blood Transfusion Department refers work to the NHS Blood and Transplant Red Cell Immunohaematology Laboratory and Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory, in Barnsley. The laboratories are UKAS accredited.

Hospital samples are delivered either via the air tube system or by hand to the Laboratory Specimen Reception Department. Blood Transfusion requests are given top priority by Specimen Reception – the requests are sent to the Blood Transfusion Department as soon as possible.

Samples which are considered to be a potential “high risk” of infection should not be transported to the laboratory using the air tube system. Samples should be transported to the laboratory in sealed containers by hand.

Antenatal serology samples are usually transported and delivered using Courier Logistics from G.P practices.

All pathology assays carry an inevitable degree of uncertainty. Whilst many factors are well recognised (pre-analytical variables, analytical precision) some occur by random error alone.

A random error is associated with the fact that when a measurement is repeated it will generally provide a measured value that is different from the previous value. It is random in that the next measured value cannot be predicted exactly from previous such values.

Users should bear in mind these uncertainties when interpreting any laboratory value. The laboratory is happy to discuss analytical variation with any user of the service. Laboratory NEQAS performance data is available to any interested user – please contact the Laboratory Manager.

This webpage was reviewed and updated by Mark Taplin, Blood Transfusion Manager, 22nd February 2024