Pathology

Pathology

The County Durham and Darlington foundation Trust's (CDDFT) Pathology service has laboratories located at University Hospital of North Durham and the Darlington Memorial Hospital. There is also on-site presence for sample receipt at Bishop Auckland Hospital.

Diagnostic testing is an integral part of the healthcare equation. Almost nothing happens, whether diagnosing a disease or monitoring a therapy, without a laboratory test.

We provide a high quality diagnostic and consultative service to clinical users of County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust and to primary and secondary care providers in the locality.

Pathology is led by our Clinical Director Dr Paul Barrett, together with the Pathology Senior Management Team consisting of Clinical and Scientific staff.

The departments are split into specialties led by a Clinical Lead and a Scientific Lead/Manager. The specialties are as follows:

• Cellular Pathology & Mortuary UKAS accredited testing laboratory No.9717
• Clinical Biochemistry & Immunology UKAS accredited testing laboratory No.8666
• Haematology & Transfusion UKAS accredited testing laboratory No.8770
• Microbiology & Serology. UKAS accredited testing laboratory No.9341

CDDFT Pathology Service holds full accreditation (excluding the Andrology Service) and complies with all legislative requirements governing the practices and competence of Medical Laboratories. Temporary amendments to service accreditation can be found in the accreditation amendments section.

 Accreditation

The individual laboratories undertake accreditation assessment through the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to ISO 15189:2012 standards. For further information on the tests accredited within each UKAS accredited department, please go to the following weblink :

UKAS : Search Accredited Organisations

Occasionally testing is performed across pathology disciplines using the technology within one department and reporting mechanisms within another department. Examples of this work include Serology testing, Flu, Intrinsic Factors and Anticardiolipins. These tests can be found on the scope of accreditation for each department involved in the testing.

The pathology service is licensed under the terms and conditions of HTA (Human Tissue Authority) and complies with regulatory standards as required by MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority).

Where appropriate all scientific and clinical staff are registered through the appropriate council (Royal College of Pathologists - Clinical Staff, Health Care Professions Council - Biomedical Scientists)

The majority of requested tests are catered for in-house; only a small percentage is referred elsewhere due to their specialist nature or because the low volume makes testing uneconomic.

The directorate has consistently achieved good results in benchmarking audits and surveys.

Biochemistry, Haematology & Transfusion and Microbiology provide a 24 hour acute service on a shift basis (Blood Sciences) or via On-call provision (Microbiology).

The department welcomes all users comments and these can be emailed to the Quality Manager rebecca.sedman@nhs.net or by following the Trust - tell us what you think (comments, feedback, complaints) on the link on the right of the page.