Laboratory Services during current alert level 2
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University of Otago MELS 410 Medical Laboratory Science for Rural Health
Rural recruitment has always been part of the challenge of running a laboratory service across the Southern region for SCL. For example, in mid-2018, SCL Dunstan advertised widely for a full time laboratory worker. There were no suitable NZ educated applicants and so a Philippine qualified Technician, who had been working in Qatar, was appointed […]
ANCA: Indications for testing
View the table of Indication for ANCA testing and clinical definitions >>
COVID-19 Pre-departure – For Referrers
The Ministry of Health has advised laboratories and PHOs that COVID exit testing for repatriation to other countries pre-departure will not be funded by the NZ government from 22 June 2020. People registering for repatriation flights departing NZ will be made aware of any requirements around pre-departure testing by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and […]
New Covid-19 antibody blood test could see cases rise
A new test, named the Abbott antibody test, can check for past exposure to Covid-19 by indicating if a person has antibodies to the virus from previous infection, RNZ reports. The research was conducted by Southern Community Labs, the Southern District Health Board, and the universities of Auckland and Otago, and scientists expect the test […]
Doing whatever it takes to get COVID-19 swabs tested
With just 24 hours notice that Air New Zealand would not fly from New Plymouth during lockdown, Taranaki laboratory workers had to think fast. They had swabs of possible Covid-19 patients that needed to be tested in Wellington and with air freight out of the question, and the cost of an urgent courier too high, […]
Vitamin D Testing Criteria
Vitamin D tests were originally developed for investigation of rickets, osteomalacia and other metabolic bone disorders. In recent years the number of requests for vitamin D tests has increased dramatically. Most of these requests are unrelated to metabolic bone disease, and have arisen because of reported associations between various disease states (cancers,cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune […]
GP update in E-ordering a positive outcome from lockdown
Electronic ordering of lab tests has been available around the country for some time now, but the uptake from GPs has been relatively low in some regions. With COVID-19 forcing the country into lockdown, and for many GPs – taking them online, e-ordering lab tests to support virtual consults saw significant uptake in the Nelson […]
Rapid COVID-19 testing now in regional laboratories – greater support for regional hospitals
From today, eight regional labs will be receiving much needed capability to rapidly test for COVID-19 and influenza, providing crucial and timely support to regional hospitals. Rapid COVID-19 tests take just under an hour, enabling the smaller regional labs to add to the national testing capacity and support regional hospitals to act early. The ability […]
Health workers, Maori test
According to the SDHB, the South enjoyed rapid turnaround of test results compared with many other places. A Covid-19 update included in the agenda for this week’s board meeting outlined how, in the early days of the outbreak, specimens had to be sent out of the district for processing. ‘‘Southern Community Laboratories, however, developed innovative […]