Clinical Biochemistry

Our Clinical Biochemistry department comprises two laboratories at Peterborough City Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital and they provide routine and emergency services to our wider Trust, community clinics, private hospitals and district GP’s.

The Chemical Pathologists are supported by a team of Biomedical Scientists and support staff who work collaboratively to deliver a 24/7 service for inpatients and the community by offering a repertoire of tests on a variety of sample types e.g. blood, urine, faeces, CSF. A small example of the tests offered performed in the laboratories includes creatinine and electrolytes, urea, liver function tests, troponin, C-reactive protein, tumour markers (e.g. CA125, CA199, CEA), hormones levels (e.g. TSH, FT4, LH, FSH), glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) for the diagnosis and monitoring of Diabetes and Faecal Immunochemical test (FIT) to assist with the diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases.

With a workload of over 7 million tests a year, the laboratories use automated analyser systems from Roche Diagnostics, Tosoh, Agilent, Perkin Elmer, Waters, Sebia in addition to a range of manual assays. Comprehensive quality control procedures are employed in order to ensure the tests are performing as expected and producing accurate results.