Pathology Requesting

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All requests received and accepted by North West Anglia Pathology Services is considered to be an agreement between the requester and the pathology laboratory.
All samples sent to the Pathology department must be accompanied by a request form, with the patient details corresponding to the specimen(s). Failure to send a request form will cause unnecessary delays in the issuing of Pathology reports. The patient demographics on the request form must match those on the sample, and requests for more than one patient must be sent separately.
Electronic requesting
The laboratory currently provides electronic requesting and reporting via Sunquest ICE. Training in the use of the software can be provided by the IT department at Peterborough City Hospital, basic instructions for use are as follows:

  1. Log into the software
  2. Locate the patient’s record using the search function (the patient name, D.O.B. or unique identifier can be used). Please ensure that you have correctly identified the patient by verifying the patient name, D.OB. and unique identifier prior to continuing with the request
  3. Click on the required patient, then click on ‘Requesting’ on the left of the screen, then ‘New Request’
  4. To locate required tests, scroll through the tabs or use the ‘Search’ tab
  5. Highlight the required tests
  6. Click on ‘Continue with Request’
  7. Select the requesting GP or Consultant, then location of the requesting clinician from the respective drop-down menus
  8. Fill in the clinical details in the required field
  9. If the results are required urgently, then change the priority status from 'Routine' to 'Urgent'
  10. Select ‘Accept Request’ then print the request form

Manual requesting
Manual request forms may also be used if access to electronic requesting is not available. The laboratory provided request forms should be used wherever possible, please ensure all request forms used are approved by the laboratory for use.
Please ensure all request forms contain the following information:

  1. Patient’s NHS number or other unique identifier (e.g. Case Note Number or District Number)
  2. Patient’s full surname
  3. Patient’s full forename (initials are not sufficient)
  4. Patient’s Date of Birth

The use of the NHS number should be included wherever possible as the coded identifier as this assists with correct patient identity for samples generated both within the hospital and primary care settings.
For Department of Sexual Health (DOSH) cases it is acceptable to use the DOSH number as well as the DOB as the identifiers.
In MAJAX cases specific MAJAX numbers will be allocated as the unique patient identifier.

  1. Patient’s gender
  2. The requesting location and the destination for the completed report to be issued to
  3. Details of the patient’s requesting consultant and GP or the name of the requesting practitioner
  4. Details of the investigations(s) required.
  5. The date and time that the sample was obtained

In addition, the following is also required:

  1. Clinical information including relevant medication (for some investigations this will be an essential requirement).
  2. The nature of the sample including qualifying details (e.g. left, distal, etc) if more than one sample is submitted for a request form)
  3. Patient category (e.g. NHS, Category 2 or private patient).
  4. For HIV, HepB, HepC and STS testing the signature of the attending physician.

If the results are required urgently please clearly mark the request form as 'Urgent'.
Please contact the laboratory if you have any concerns regarding requesting.