Mouth Swab

Walk into the Clinical Blood Sciences lab at Croydon University Hospital and you can’t miss them: a pillar covered in laminated wall charts, each one a grid of red and green marker strokes climbing towards a 95% goal line. They track urgent turnaround times for tests like troponin, U&Es and CRP, day by day, month by month. They’re simple. They’re visible. And according to the team behind them, they’re changing how the lab works.

There is a moment in every meaningful career when the role you have been preparing for finally meets the person you have become.. As Sarah prepares to step down from her role as Network Clinical Lead for Biochemistry at South West London Pathology, Sarah reflects on her forty-two year career that began with a serendipitous laboratory placement and evolved into a legacy of connection and collaboration.

For Diana, every day presents a unique challenge. it all depends on which bench she’s working. Some days she’s on a one-person bench, giving her the freedom to plan her own time. Other days she’s in the 6800, SWLP’s busy molecular suite housing three Cobas analysers, working alongside an Associate Practitioner and one or two Band Support Workers.

Our managing director, Simon Brewer, led a team from the South West London to Bordeaux, France to visit one of Europe’s most advanced diagnostic laboratories, a trip that is now directly shaping plans for SWLP’s own GP hub.