Haematology service for Swansea NHS Trust has recently procured a total of 12 blood count and coagulation analysers, with associated reagents and consumables
Providing diagnostic and therapeutic services for a catchment area of almost half a million people, the Haematology Service for Swansea NHS Trust processes over 300,000 blood counts and 150,000 coagulation requests annually.
In line with the EU Directive, the department has recently procured a total of 12 Sysmex blood count and coagulation analysers, with associated reagents and consumables.
Core requirements defined at the start of the procurement process included analysers able to cope with different site-specific workloads and backup systems to support sample processing in the event of a breakdown.
Equipping each site to cope with the workload of another in the event of total site breakdown was also considered a key factor, as was standardising instruments and reagents to enable effective district-wide staff rotation and training.
The Sysmex range was found to offer the optimum overall package to meet the department's blood count and coagulation requirements, following an evaluation period performed in accordance with International Committee for Standardisation of Haematology recommended protocols.
Four XE2100 and two SF3000 blood count analysers, plus one CA540 and five CA1500 coagulometers have been successfully allocated, installed and interfaced.
According to the hospital staff, the exceptional throughput of the XE2100 haematology analyser has been evident with virtually no backlog periods during the familiarisation period, and the CA1500 coagulometers have proved to be fast and effective platforms which meet the demands of the Trust's service.
Staff on all three sites are adapting well to the significant and successful changes with the help of representatives and product specialists from Sysmex UK.
