Royal Bolton’s labs have been recognised as the best in the country, while figures show that more than 7m vital tests have been carried out each year.
This comes after the hospital’s Bis Antenatal Screening Laboratory was awarded six green flags by the national steering committee marking it as the top performing in the country.
As such, staff say this could be crucial in helping women through screening processes with the lowest level of anxiety possible.
Bolton NHS director of antenatal screening, Carolyn Williams, said: “We have the second largest antenatal screening laboratory in UK, so to manage such a substantial workload whilst maintaining the highest standards is a credit to the team and the community they serve.
More than seven million tests are carried out in Bolton NHS labs every year
“This means that women undertaking screening for fetal anomalies during their pregnancy can be assured that they are receiving the most accurate results, informing decision making during their pregnancy.
“This assurance can help prevent concern and anxiety that women may experience when undertaking screening.”
“The team have recently taken on work from Wirral University Hospital Trust, adding another 2,500 samples per year to the 53,000 annual tests they already do.”
Further findings from Royal Bolton’s labs show that "hidden heroes" pathologists carry out more than 7m vital tests for cancers, Covid-19 and other ailments every year.
Work done in Royal Bolton labs also includes fertility tests
This shows that they are carrying out 8,000 cancer tests, 94,000 Covid-19 tests and taking 36,000 blood samples from patients every year.
These tests are often vital to diagnosing dangerous diseases and catching cancer in its earliest possible stages so that patients’ lives can still be saved.
Dr Chinari Subudhi, who leads Bolton NHS Trust’s laboratory medicine team, said: “Pathology staff are the essential workforce in all laboratory services in the NHS because they are involved in vital work such as processing clinical samples from patients, diagnosing infectious diseases, and diagnosing cancers.
“A lot of big decisions are based on our results, making us critical to healthcare in how we analyse samples to help ensure patients get the best outcome.
“People might not always see what they do, so it's important we shine a spotlight on their contributions to healthcare.”
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