Blood taking and centrifuges at GP practices (Tees and North Yorkshire)
9 February 2026
To ensure we are providing an excellent service to GP stakeholders and patients we are carrying out a piece of work to identify blood taking practices in GP surgeries across Teesside and North Yorkshire.
We would like to confirm clinic timings, which practices are centrifuging bloods prior to them being transported or picked up from surgeries and other related questions. This will help us to have a greater understanding of the sample journey from yourselves to us at the Tees Valley Pathology labs and aid service planning.
We would be grateful if all local practices could complete this short online form: Blood taking and centrifuges at GP practices form
Less forms, faster results (North Tees and Hartlepool)
27 January 2026
To ensure blood samples are processed as quickly as possible we will soon be introducing a new form and labelling process at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust for blood sciences.
From 16 March 2026 there will be one ICE form blood sciences (biochemistry, haematology and coagulation) to send to pathology for each patient containing all specimen types (similar to how ICE forms used to print before June 2025).
This will improve workflow and speed up the booking in process, ensuring patient samples are processed as quickly as possible upon receipt.
As well as delivering more timely results, this new way of working will also be much more environmentally friendly.
Patient tests will be ordered on ICE as usual, but when the new form is printed the stickers will contain a number with a suffix specific to the sample type required (for example S – Serum, E – EDTA, C – Citrate, F – Fluoride Oxalate). The labels will have a user-friendly container name on them as well as the suffix. Each sample type should be marked with the corresponding label and then sent to pathology as normal.
We have attached an image of the new form and labels to show you how they will look. Full training materials will be provided ahead of go live along with the opportunity to attend a lunch and learn session in February.
Between now and go live please consider only printing off forms for the time period you need.
We thank you for your patience and understanding during the transition period during the week commencing 16 March. If you have any concerns or queries, or require more information, please email [email protected]
Haematology analyser downtime (Friarage)
2 January 2026
From Saturday 3 January 2026 our haematology analyser will have a period of downtime whilst we await delivery of essential reagents. This will impact sample processing for haematology at the Friarage Hospital.
During this time, samples will be transported to The James Cook University Hospital laboratory for analysis with urgent samples prioritised. All necessary logistics including transportation have been arranged.
Please anticipate potential delays in result turnaround times. We would also ask that you only contact the laboratory if it is absolutely necessary.
Thank you for your continued support. If you have any queries or questions, please contact Sam Nodding or Kelly Grieve or Rebecca Gallagher on 01642 282637 or extension 52637.
Calcium reference range reporting (South Tees)
23 December 2025
The biochemistry department at South Tees has recently had new analysers installed as part of the upgrade of the blood science service. These analysers have been tested and clinically verified for routine use; however it has come to light that there has been an issue with the reporting of the corrected calcium reference range due to an IT issue in the laboratory information system. Actual results for corrected calcium have been reported, but users may have noticed that the reference range was missing.
This issue has now been addressed, and all corrected calcium results should be accompanied by the appropriate reference range. There has been no change to this reference range (2.2 to 2.6mmol/L for adults) or any change in practice. The biochemistry laboratory routinely phones all new occurrences of a corrected calcium of less than 1.8mmol/L or greater than 3mmol/L to the requesting clinician or location, so it is unlikely that any new hypo or hypercalcaemic events will have been missed.
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused to your teams, colleagues or patients.
For any queries please email [email protected]