Holiday closures & testing arrangements

Outside of routine courier collections, please do not arrange deliveries to arrive between:

• 12 noon on Tuesday 24 December and the end of Thursday 26 December
• 12 noon on Tuesday 31 December and the end of Wednesday 1 January

Staff will be on-call to process urgent samples during this period.

Haemato-Oncology Service

Routine courier services will not be in place over the bank holidays. If you anticipate sending samples at these times please contact the CUH Genomics Laboratory teams as soon as possible to make arrangements:

• Molecular Team (cuh.eastglh-haemonc-molecular@nhs.net)
• Cyto Team (cuh.eastglh-haemonc-cyto@nhs.net)

Due to the closures detailed above, please:

• Inform us in advance of any samples arriving after 3 pm Friday 20th December.
• Routine samples requiring RNA extraction for internal tests (e.g., BCR-ABL p210 quantification) must also be received by 3 pm Friday 20th December.
• Follow-up AML or ALL MRD samples requiring immediate dispatch to external laboratories to obtain RNA (e.g., NPM1, core binding factor, PML-RARA, BCR-ABL1) should be received no later than 12 noon Thursday 19th December.
  • Samples received after this date will require processing within the GLH prior to onward dispatch and must be received by 12 noon Tuesday 24 December.

CUH Genomics Laboratory molecular scientists will however be available to ensure that if urgent processing can be performed over the holidays (where necessary to maintain the viability of RNA). For CUH submitters a cytogenetics scientist will also be on call for emergency requests by contacting the HODS on-call consultant.

If you have a sample requiring this type of urgent processing please contact the CUH Genomics Laboratory teams:

• Molecular Team (cuh.eastglh-haemonc-molecular@nhs.net)
• Cyto Team (cuh.eastglh-haemonc-cyto@nhs.net)

If you would like to contact the on-call HODS consultant, please go through the CUH switchboard on 01223 805000.

Thank you and happy holidays.