Information on the laboratory services is available through the main Lothian laboratory website.
Sections of the website particularly relevant to primary care include:
- WHICH BLOOD TUBE FOR WHICH TEST or for tests not listed see Test Directory | Edinburgh and Lothians Laboratory Medicine
- For delayed specimens – sample storage information
- Laboratory advice and updates
- Generic lab issues and GP Order Comms (GPOC) or ICE
- GPOC downtime instructions
Contacting the laboratories
Please note that the Laboratory office hours are 9-5 Monday to Friday.
Outside these hours there is an on-call service for clinical advice in all disciplines 24/7 and there will also be an on call biomedical scientist in each lab to process samples -contact us via switchboard.
Please see the individual discipline tabs and/or laboratory contact details (phone and email) for all the different specialties.
Advice about specimens and results
ADD-ON biochemistry tests – see Biochemistry.
Abnormal results
- Abnormal results will be phoned through to the requesting practice or service in line with the laboratory telephoning criteria
- Please see the haematology guidelines for managing abnormal results
- And the guidance on abnormal liver function tests.
Specimen Collection Advice
- Please see the advice about high risk samples on the Laboratory website: High Risk Samples | Edinburgh and Lothians Laboratory Medicine.
Labelling Details
Always check the patient’s telephone number on the system is current and appears on the printed label or form in case we need to contact the out of hours service about a result. Please provide clinical details with the request where possible to aid results interpretation, especially if there is any possibility of the result being telephoned to the out of hours service.
If the patient does not have a Community Health Index (CHI) number, please write this on the form or the laboratories will need to phone for the CHI number. Contact number for CHI queries 0131 242 788.
If the patient is being given a sample bottle or pot to fill at home, please ask them to write on the container the date and time the sample was produced. (If this is not done the date of collection may be taken as the day the sample was requested by the clinician. For some samples there are strict time limits for processing leading to sample rejection).
Barcode labels should be placed ‘lengthways’ on the sample tubes and not wrapped horizontally around the tube, so that the scanner can read them. Otherwise, laboratory staff have to enter the details manually, which is slow and work-intensive. It also leads to transcription errors as the writing on the label is tiny.
Sample Details.
- Urine containers for 24-hour tests can be obtained by contacting the laboratory.
- Urgent samples
- Put the specimen in its bag in an envelope marked ‘urgent’
- Phone the lab reception to warn they are coming.
- Samples should be placed in bags as per the table below:
| | Microbiology | Virology | Haem/Biochem |
| Little Bag For samples from a single patient | Yellow | Blue | Green |
| Big Bag Once samples are in a small bag they should be added to the appropriate big bag | Blue | Blue | Green (or Pink) |
