Reports

All reports issued by the department are available on the relevant Trusts’ electronic systems.  This will be EPIC HIVE Electronic Patient Record at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust sites and Lorenzo within Tameside.  For primary care, paper reports are distributed to the GP practice systems.

Paper reports are still sent to the users at Tameside, Christie and some GP practices.  Tameside reports, including those for the Tameside GP practices, are transported back to the Pathology Department at Tameside site using the twice daily transport.  They are then distributed as required from Tameside Pathology.  Paper reports for GP practices within the Greater Manchester catchment area are sent via second class post.

Users are requested to check if final reports are available on the patient chart in HIVE before making enquiries. Please note that clerical staff will not give report details over the telephone.

Turnaround times

The Diagnostic Cytology service aims to report all specimens in accordance with NHSE Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) by March 2025

Existing turnaround times guided by the Royal College of Pathologists are:

80% of cases are to be reported within seven calendar days of sample being taken whilst 90% are to be reported within ten calendar days – www.rcpath.org. TAT relates to the final local report and excludes cases sent for external opinion and those that require molecular biology analysis. The department is required to publish monthly audit reports and this information is available on request.

Reporting times for all specimens, including urgent and HSC205, may be extended if they are high risk specimens. Any case requiring specialist techniques such as immunohistochemistry will also likely have extended reporting times. Some cases may require referral to a specialist referral centre, which can prolong reporting times. This would include samples such as lymphomas, which are routinely referred to the Christie via the Haematological Cancer Diagnostics Service. However, a preliminary report would be issued beforehand.

To ensure we meet our turnaround time targets, all urgent and HSC205 specimens must be clearly labelled as such. There are several factors that may affect the turnaround time of a specimen, such as those mentioned in Factors affecting performance.

(Last reviewed February 2025)