01246 277 271
The Histopathology Service in Chesterfield is provided by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Laboratory Medicine under a merged service agreement. We provide comprehensive diagnostic and interpretative services for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Chesterfield Royal Hospital, Community Health Clinics, General Practitioners, local Private Hospitals, Sheffield Universities as well as other NHS hospitals and act as a referral centre for the South Yorkshire, Bassetlaw and North Derbyshire Cancer Alliance Network.
Our service on the Chesterfield site incorporates routine and specialist Diagnostic Cytology and Intraoperative Frozen sections in addition to Histology on biopsies and surgical resections. The site receives specimens from hospital inpatients, outpatients and community services such as GP practices.
We are a UKAS accredited medical laboratory No. 8509.
For additional information please see our Laboratory Medicine site, accessible at Sheffield Laboratory Medicine.
A Consultant Histopathologist is available during the department opening hours for clinical advice and interpretation.
All specimen containers must be correctly labelled and accompanied by an appropriate and fully completed request form. Use pre-printed addressograph labels for patient identification whenever possible.
Specimens will not be accepted for analysis if the following criteria are not met:
- Essential patient identifiers are not met on either the request form or the specimen container.
- The request form or specimen container is unlabelled.
- The request form or specimen container is incorrectly labelled to such a degree that reliable identification of the patient is compromised.
Unlabelled/mislabelled samples or requests will require identification and verification by the requesting Clinician/Clinic before being processed by the Laboratory.
A member of Histology staff will telephone the Clinician/Clinic to inform them of the issue. An appropriate member of staff must attend the Histology Department to resolve the issue, make any necessary amendments to the specimen container or request form and sign to accept responsibility for identification.
Inadequately labelled specimens or requests may result in a delay in the Histology report.
When a valid specimen and request form have been received it is implied that suitable consent between the requestor and patients has been taken. The pathology department will keep all personal patient information private and confidential. The histopathology department uses selected referral laboratories for some specialised testing and opinion requests and may share appropriate patient information for these reasons.
Should patients or staff have any concerns, complaints, comments or complements regarding the Histopathology and cytology service they should contact the Deputy Laboratory manager (contact information above or via the customer satisfaction survey Customer Satisfaction Survey). Alternatively the local PALS department may be contacted.
All specimen containers must be correctly labelled and accompanied by an appropriate and fully completed request form. Use pre-printed addressograph labels for patient identification whenever possible.
Specimens will not be accepted for analysis if the following criteria are not met:
- Essential patient identifiers are not met on either the request form or the specimen container.
- The request form or specimen container is unlabelled.
- The request form or specimen container is incorrectly labelled to such a degree that reliable identification of the patient is compromised.
Unlabelled/mislabelled samples or requests will require identification and verification by the requesting Clinician/Clinic before being processed by the Laboratory.
A member of Histology staff will telephone the Clinician/Clinic to inform them of the issue. An appropriate member of staff must attend the Histology Department to resolve the issue, make any necessary amendments to the specimen container or request form and sign to accept responsibility for identification.
Inadequately labelled specimens or requests may result in a delay in the Histology report.
When a valid specimen and request form have been received it is implied that suitable consent between the requestor and patients has been taken. The pathology department will keep all personal patient information private and confidential. The histopathology department uses selected referral laboratories for some specialised testing and opinion requests and may share appropriate patient information for these reasons.
Should patients or staff have any concerns, complaints, comments or complements regarding the Histopathology and cytology service they should contact the Deputy Laboratory manager (contact information above or via the customer satisfaction survey Customer Satisfaction Survey). Alternatively the local PALS department may be contacted.
The Advance notice of planned intraoperative Frozen sections must be given by contacting the laboratory on 01246 512262.
Specimens must be delivered to the Histopathology department no later than 4pm.