This month, the clinical blood sciences laboratory at St George’s Hospital welcomed a group of young people for a tour of the lab. The young visitors are part of the Children and Young People’s Council at the Trust and are regular patients who have frequent blood tests and blood transfusions. The tour was part of the UK-wide initiative called Harvey’s Gang, which was set up to help young patients and their families feel more at ease by connecting them with the biomedical science staff who process and analyse their samples to help manage and diagnose their illnesses.
The young people first visited haematology, where Advanced Biomedical Scientist Fiona Doyley talked them through the process for testing full blood count samples. They then moved to biochemistry, where Specialist Biomedical Scientist Chris James showed them the track and how it sorts and tests samples. Finally, they talked to Specialist Biomedical Scientist Richelle Meneses in blood transfusion, who talked them through what happens to the blood when it is received in the lab and how the correct blood is then given to the patients.
The tour ended with Harvey’s Gang and SWLP freebies for each of the young people.
All the young visitors really enjoyed their tour and it sparked conversations and questions, which continued after the tour was done. The organised from St George’s play team were profuse in their thanks to the teams in the laboratory for supporting the tour.
