Biochemistry

Contact Information

Address

Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory
South Laboratory
Victoria Hospital
Hayfield Road
Kirkcaldy
Fife KY2 5AH

Laboratory Contacts

Opening Hours

Normal Laboratory Hours       Monday to Friday 09:00-17:00
Limited Service Hours            Saturday 09:00-12:30

Limited service with the following tests provided: electrolytes, creatinine, urea, bicarbonate, liver function tests, conjugated bilirubin, bone profile, lipids, uric acid, magnesium, amylase, blood gases, carboxyhaemoglobin, paracetamol, salicylate, glucose, CK, CRP, TSH, FT4, iron, lactate, LDH, total protein, troponin T and ammonia.

Out of Hours

For requests out with the working day, a limited range of analytes are available on an emergency basis only. The laboratory must be informed in advance of any emergency sample. In the absence of any such contact, sample processing may be delayed.

Consultation and Advice

Departmental staff are available to provide advice and help on the service provided and welcome comments and suggestions, critical or otherwise, on its quality. If it is felt that there is a problem or doubts about the validity of results it is essential that the laboratory be notified as soon as possible.

The Duty Clinical Biochemist is available during working hours for the provision of advice on test selection, including where necessary specimen requirements and patient preparation, and result interpretation. Outside working hours he/she can be contacted for consultation via the switchboard.

Target Turnaround Times

Turnaround time

This is the time taken from receipt of the specimen by the laboratory to the reporting, i.e., availability on ward terminals, of the result from the laboratory. The targets for turnaround time recognised by the Department of Clinical Biochemistry are:

Emergency requests

The sample(s) will be processed immediately and results will be available as soon as is practicably possible, usually within 1h of receipt.

Routine investigations

The results of most of the tests requested should be available the same day if the specimen(s) reach either the main Department by 1500h. Detailed turnaround times are found in test directory.

Test Repertoire/Specimen Requirements

All samples must be requested using the appropriate department request forms or via TrakCare or Cyberlab electronic requesting system. TrakCare and Cyberlab will automatically send all information to the LIMS and generate a label for the sample that will allow us to match the sample to the request. Benefits from laboratory investigations are very much dependant on the quality of request and specimen information submitted, as well as on the laboratory procedures, clinical advice and interpretation of results. The minimum data set (MDS) policy is strictly enforced (except for certain ‘precious’ specimens) and samples risk being disposed of unless MDS requirements on both request form and specimen (see below) are fulfilled. TrakCare or Cyberlab requests that have been received with an order number that has already been used (ie barcodes have been reprinted from a prior request rather than a unique request generated), may be held by the lab until a unique request can be generated by the user.

The full Clinical Biochemistry testing repertoire can be found in the Test Directory. A quick guide on specimen containers for Clinical Biochemistry can be found here.