Communication of results

Reports

All reports issued by the department are available on the relevant Trusts’ electronic systems.

Reports are only made available when the necessary tests have been completed, reviewed and authorised by a Consultant Pathologist. Verbal reports are not routinely provided by the Consultant however, on occasion, when there is a clear benefit or risk to the patient verbal reports or clinical discussions can only be provided to identified and qualified medical staff by Consultant Pathologists only. All report enquiries should be directed to the secretarial office in the first instance. The scientific staff in the laboratory cannot give out any information regarding results/reports. To support timely release of results, third party agencies may be used to produce the report issued – this will be specifically referenced on the report issued if applicable.

Histology Reports

Report enquiries – ORC: Office 0161 701 1615

Report enquiries – Wythenshawe: Office 0161 291 4813

At times, this number may have an answering machine: please leave a clear request and a number for us to call you back

Departmental nhs.net email address

ORC: mft.adult.histosecs@nhs.net

Wythenshawe: mft.wythenshawe.histosecs@nhs.net

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

Turnaround times

The department works to RCPath Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The target is to report all diagnostic cases within 10 days. Complex cases requiring additional processing steps such as decalcification or cases which require additional tests will have extended TATs. Turnaround times are monitored by the department and reported both internally within the Trust and externally to organisations such as NHS England.

The up to date TAT information can be found on the trust webpage which is updated as a minimum bi annually.

Reporting times for all specimens, including urgent and HSC205, may be extended if they are high risk specimens, large resection specimens or calcified or bony samples. Any case requiring specialist techniques such as immunohistochemistry or electron microscopy 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. An appropriate frozen section request will aim to be reported by telephone within 60 minutes. Frozen sections should normally be booked with the laboratory 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 August 2025)