HRH The Princess Royal opens new pathology suite at Wakefield hospital

A new state-of-the-art pathology facility has been opened by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal. Its technology features ARCHITECT clinical chemistry and immunoassay analysers from Abbott Diagnostics. The new facility has been built as part of the new hospital development in Wakefield to provide the local population with the best possible, most efficient healthcare services and is an outstanding example of innovation in healthcare.

Princess Anne unveiled a plaque to commemorate the opening after meeting staff and guests and touring the facility. Mr Christopher Hunton, Pathology Directorate Manager, escorted The Princess through the new laboratory. He explained: “Princess Anne was well versed in the importance of pathology testing and was very interested in the work we do here at Wakefield. Her questions were insightful.

“She was clearly fascinated by the sophistication of the instrumentation in the new laboratory - particularly the biochemistry analysers and how they improve patient outcomes. I explained that tests which would have taken someone half a day to carry out can now be handled on the new ARCHITECT analyser in less than 35 minutes.

“With around 70% of patient diagnoses relying on laboratory tests, the efficiency of these new instruments will play a vital role in helping our clinicians give effective treatment to patients more quickly. The new laboratory is already handling nearly 2,500 patient samples per day and this number looks set to double by the end of January 2011 when our new hospital opens.”

Mr Christopher Hunton, Pathology Directorate Manager of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (right) and David Brummitt (left), Locum Biomedical Scientist, discuss pathology with HRH The Princess Royal in the new blood transfusion laboratory