Unprecedented demand and a need to embrace a personalised approach to medicine: Penny Pinnock looks at these and other challenges currently facing laboratories, and considers the various financial and technological options available to NHS trusts.
Pathology services underpin NHS diagnoses and disease monitoring, and are involved in 70% of all healthcare diagnoses,1 meaning that laboratories 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 more people survive diseases such as cancer, they need support to manage living with chronic conditions. Research shows that half of the laboratory tests ordered by GPs are carried out to control long-term condition such as diabetes, high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease.2 Supporting patients with chronic illnesses means more testing for pathology services, and in the future routine testing will constitute an ever-larger proportion of laboratory workloads.2
Embracing automation
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