Patient Experience
The Laboratory in St James’s Hospital has seen huge increases in GP workload, with much of it coming from outside our catchment area. The workload is adversely affecting our ability to provide timely results for St James’s patients and also our local GPs.
Our catchment areas are defined as Dublin 6/6W, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 (Rathfarnham only) and 20 (Chapelizod only). In addition, St James’s Hospital has agreed with the Dublin South Inner City Partnership and Dublin South West to include Lucan and Dublin 2. Parts of Leixlip are also included.
The Centre for Laboratory Medicine and Molecular Pathology provides a wide range of laboratory examinations in support of diagnostic and treatment decisions in clinical medicine and in primary care.
This service includes scientific and clinical advisory services to support clinical users in selecting the appropriate examinations and to help in the diagnosis of illness and the monitoring of the treatment of those illnesses. The laboratory is divided into a number of scientific and clinical specialties and national reference laboratories.
Further information on opening times for specific departments can be obtained by clicking on the departmental links below.
The Centre for Laboratory Medicine and Molecular Pathology includes the departments listed below. Detailed information on the services provided by each department is available by clicking on the relevant link below:
In addition, all departments are fully engaged with translational research and development, teaching and learning, contributing to the publication of articles in peer reviewed journals, lectures and presentations and continuous professional development.
The primary source of information for users is the LabMed User Guide.
In addition to the general information for the departments listed above, the guide also includes a database of laboratory investigations, fully searchable by department or investigation name. This provides full details of specimen types and volumes, patient preparation, special handling requirements, turnaround times and biological reference intervals.
The health professionals involved in Laboratory Medicine and Molecular Pathology include the following:
GP information is available in the LabMed User Guide. A key requirement for all GPs is that they order tests from the GP test catalogue electronically through Healthlink and receive results electronically, also through Healthlink.
As GPs may require to be contacted outside normal clinic hours, an out-of-hours emergency contact number is a mandatory requirement for all GPs using the laboratory’s services.
The Laboratory Medicine and Molecular Pathology Directorate provide a referral service to all public and private hospitals in the country. All services are underpinned by a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and all laboratories are encouraged to request electronically using a LIS2LIS link that is available to them.
Details of the laboratory’s scope of accreditation under ISO 15189 Registration No. 327MT is available on www.INAB.ie The laboratory has been approved to operate a flexible scope of accreditation. The lists of tests currently approved under the laboratory's flexible scope process are available by contacting the Quality Manager.