The cellular pathology department compromises histopathology, diagnostic cytology and mortuary services.
Histopathology is the study of organs and tissues and diagnostic cytology the study of cells in fluid samples. They involve the specialised preparation of pieces of human tissue or fluids to produce glass slides that are viewed under a microscope to determine if disease may be present.
Samples are received from a wide range of sources including operating theatres, day surgery units, endoscopy and colposcopy units, outpatient clinics and GP surgeries.
We receive in excess of 60,000 tissue samples and 5,000 cytology samples, and examine over 300,000 microscope slides per year.
The samples are prepared by experienced and trained biomedical scientists, supported by biomedical assistants and are reported on by our team of medically qualified pathologists.
Quality assurance in cellular pathology
Cellular pathology is committed to providing high-quality clinical and diagnostic services. We are accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to international standard ISO 15189 Medical Laboratories – Requirements for Quality and Competence. Our laboratory reference is 8608.
Accreditation demonstrates our technical competence for a defined scope and a full list of all the accredited tests we provide is detailed in our schedule of accreditation which is published on the UKAS website and can be accessed here.
Some tests provided by the laboratory are non-accredited so are not included within this schedule. Users should be assured that these tests have been subjected to the same level of verification and quality assurance processes as those that have been accredited. As such they are fit for purpose but have yet to be assessed by UKAS.
The mortuary service is licensed by the Human Tissue Authority – reference 12337.