Role of the laboratory and testing in primary care

Historically, pathology laboratories have provided a valuable diagnostic service to primary care, traditionally performing a wide range of analytical tests on patient samples. Biomedical scientists in the major pathology disciplines perform a vital but often unseen role in supporting patient diagnosis and treatment, and their important work and expertise involved in undertaking over 100 million pathology tests each year forms the backbone of the NHS – it is said that around 80% of all healthcare diagnostic and treatment decisions involve some form of pathology investigation. Consequently it is important that GPs and other primary care staff make extensive use of their local pathology services, particularly in screening for conditions such as anaemia or in chronic disease management in, fir example, diabetes.

Additionally, early testing via laboratory services as part of a referral process has the capacity to speed up the patient journey and thus improve quality of care and outcomes. The downside of this, however, is that primary care staff now request a variety of investigations that previously were restricted to secondary care requiring specialist knowledge. It is in this area that laboratory staff can play a key role in providing the necessary help and advice in test selection results interpretation to assist primary care staff in making the best use of the laboratory to improve patient outcomes.

Pathology modernisation
Increasing demand for a wide range of pathology services over recent years in both primary and secondary care has forced a major rethink in the way laboratories organise their workloads. Latest figures show an average rise of 10 % in workload per year, with the complexity of test repertoire also growing. In today’s 24-hour society it is no longer economically viable to provide a 9-to-5 routine pathology service coupled with an emergency-only out-of-hours services. As a result many laboratories are modernising their services by introducing shift working patterns, allowing laboratory staff to process routine and emergency work on a 24/7 basis. This enables the laboratory to maximise the potential of staff and the analytical equipment to provide a better service to users, including primary care, which can also benefit by receiving faster result turnaround times if required.