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| CANTERBURY HEALTH LABORATORIES |
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The laboratories perform all testing on patients under the care of the Canterbury DHB. In addition daily requests are received to perform specialist tests from hospital and private laboratories between Auckland in the north and Invercargill in the south. It has the biggest ‘catchment’ area of and laboratory in New Zealand.
While community laboratories are only contracted to perform about 170 different procedures, the contract awarded to Canterbury Health Laboratories encompasses 1500 different tests. Every laboratory discipline is represented in Canterbury Health Laboratories and annual testing exceeds 3.5 million analyses. In order to meet the requirements of Christchurch Hospital clinicians the laboratory maintains a 24 hour on-site service for routinely requested tests. Specialist staff are available on call should a more complex analysis be required.
In order to offer the extensive range of services it is necessary to have an appropriately qualified workforce. More than 300 staff are employed by Canterbury Health Laboratories including 20 pathologists, 18 Ph D level Scientific Officers and 103 registered medical laboratory scientists. The reputation the testing service holds within New Zealand and overseas is reflected in the number of national and international experts within the laboratory.
The laboratory is the best equipped in New Zealand. Here is a sample:
This indicates the significant investment Canterbury District Health Board has made in its laboratory service and its confidence in its future.
Canterbury Health Laboratories has a dedicated team of eight IT staff responsible for the support of the Delphic Laboratory Information System (LIS) and the numerous related laboratory applications. The Delphic LIS is also utilised by five further laboratories via a Multilab arrangement. All laboratories using the LIS are supported 24/7. Canterbury Health Laboratory currently transmits electronic reporting using HL7 format to over 200 GP practices via the Healthlink network. Canterbury Health Laboratories is accredited with International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) in all disciplines to ISO15189 (including POCT) and AS/NZF4308 for workplace drug testing, and for all medical testing procedures it performs. While CHL is willing to undertake non-medical testing, it is not covered by the scope of it's accreditation. Click on the following links to view our IANZ documentation:
CHL also hold permits from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) to import biological products of animal origin. For further information on these MAF permits please contact our Quality and Business Development Manager:
Role as a Reference Laboratory Under the Crown Health Enterprises (CHE's) environment in the mid 1990's Canterbury Health Laboratories became the laboratory service of Canterbury Health Ltd. As this CHE focused solely on acute services it required a responsive laboratory service capable of performing very specialised tests. This in turn lead to it being utilised more and more by other laboratories, which saw the benefits of having a central reference laboratory performing these tests. The laboratory not only produced quality results but also was able to improve turnaround time and reduce cost because of increased volumes. While District Health Boards have replaced CHEs, Canterbury Health Laboratories continues to perform these difficult tests aided by 20 pathologists to help with interpretation. Further, a large team of research scientists is constantly developing new tests and procedures. A courier network uplifts samples every working day from laboratories as far north as Auckland Hospital through to Southland (Kew) Hospital in Invercargill. Test results are either transmitted electronically to the referrer's own computer system or can be accessed via an electronic link to the Canterbury Health Laboratories computer. Canterbury Health Laboratories continues to maintain contracts for specialist testing with a large number of client laboratories in both the North and South Island. In addition contracts are held with the Ministry of Health for measles and antenatal Down's screening as well as commercial links with private providers.
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Canterbury Health Laboratories is the largest medical
laboratory in the South Island, operating from modern, well equipped facilities opposite Christchurch Hospital. It also staffs and maintains smaller laboratories
and collection centres at Ashburton, Burwood, and The Princess Margaret Hospitals.
