Penny Pinnock, sales manager – Healthcare & Public Sector for Siemens Financial Services (SFS) discusses why NHS trusts must work together to meet the challenges facing their laboratories.
Labs
Pathology is involved in 70% of all healthcare diagnoses, meaning pathologists were facing increased pressure to cope with the UK’s growing and ageing population, even before the added stress of the current healthcare crisis. As life expectancy increases and people survive such diseases as cancer, they need support to manage living with chronic conditions. Supporting these patients means more testing for pathology services, meaning that in the future routine testing will constitute an ever-larger proportion of laboratories’ workloads.
In order to keep pace with the increase in routine testing, laboratories will need to embrace greater automation provided by the latest technology platforms. These platforms allow laboratories to run several tests simultaneously, generate results faster and increase sample throughput. This in turn can reduce the need for manual work, the risk of errors, client turnaround times and costs. Innovative automation systems for processing lines also mean information and workflows can be integrated and shared across various laboratory facilities, which can help to cope with peak volumes at busy times. Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), for example, allow effective management of samples and associated data to improve lab efficiency through automated workflows, integrated instruments and managed information.