Minister opens new lab for King’s

The laboratory, which is a partnership between King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics, has the capacity to process more than 12,000 samples a day and takes advantage of recent advances in information technology by automating labour-intensive operations. Time and resources are further saved by combining routine haematology, biochemistry and various immunology and virology investigations and antibiotic assays into one central service rather than operating as separate areas. 

The Minister was also shown the new Molecular Pathology Laboratory at King’s, which is being used to develop a new generation of diagnostic tests using genetic technology. Professor Ghulam Mufti, Clinical Director for Haemato-Oncology at King’s, commented:  “Whereas traditional blood tests give a ‘high level’ diagnosis based on set criteria, molecular tests use DNA to give a much more detailed picture of the patient and how their condition is affecting them, allowing us to deliver treatment and care which is specific to that patient’s needs and which is more likely to succeed.”