Path lab declared a fine specimen

SEVEN out of 10 Oldhamers with a health problem owe their diagnosis to tests on samples carried out in the town’s new £17.5 million pathology laboratory.

From diabetes and anaemia to heart attack and high cholesterol, they all owe their detection to scientists who study and analyse everything from disease-causing micro-organisms, tissues and cells, to blood and other body fluids.

More than 300 people work in the behind-the-scenes service, who between them examine 12 million samples a year.

The new state-of-the art facility at the Royal Oldham Hospital was officially opened by Professor Bruce Keogh, Medical Director of the NHS.

The national health boss and heart surgeon came to Oldham to see first-hand the laboratory which Pennine Acute Trust believes to be the largest of its kind in the country.

He toured the facility which provides pathology services not only for the Royal Oldham Hospital and Oldham GPs, but for the trust’s three other hospitals and GPs across the north east of Greater Manchester.

Pathology services underpin the work of NHS clinical staff working both in hospitals and in the community, who rely on laboratory analysis for around 70 per cent of their diagnoses.

Staff use the latest automation techniques and technologies, and Professor Keogh said after his visit: “I was very impressed — it really is first class.”

The floorspace of the three-storey pathology laboratory is close to the size of Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium, which hosts the Euro 2008 finals later this month.

Work began on clearing the area in August 2005, and building work was completed by Norwest Holst in October last year.

Middleton MP Jim Dobbin, who missed the official opening ceremony because he was having a knee operation at Rochdale Infirmary, has been offered a private visit by hospital bosses when he recovers.

Mr Dobbin worked as a biomedical scientist in the hospital’s old laboratory, which is now 10 years old and linked to the new building to provide offices, training and conference facilities.