Aintree Hospitals comprises of two main teaching hospitals. University Hospital Aintree is a large acute teaching hospital providing Accident and Emergency services and a wide range of acute and non-acute specialities. Walton Hospital provides out patient and day surgery services.
Aintree Hospitals employs 3,463 WTE staff and serves a population of 330,00 in the North Merseyside and surrounding areas.
Clinical Pathology at Aintree includes the disciplines of Haematology and Transfusion, Biochemistry, Cellular Pathology and Immunology, and Microbiology.
The main Haematology laboratory has a Sysmex HST system incorporating two XE2100’s, an SP100 and SIS which employs autovalidation, and routinely processes around 1200 full blood counts a day. The laboratory also has two CA1500 coagulation analysers which handle around 300 clotting samples in an average 24 hour period, and perform thrombophilia screening, factor assays and other non-routine samples throughout each week.
The laboratory has used Sysmex instrumentation since I began my career here around 12 years ago. The SE900 and K-series ‘stat’ analyser were outgrown when workload demand became so great and progressed into the HST system, and likewise, the CA1000 became first one CA1500, then two.
The analysers are put to the test physically, working continually throughout each day and night, all year round, with which they cope admirably despite their 10+ years in service.
We have a gold service maintenance contract on the HST system and on one on the CA1500’s, and the engineers that attend any call outs are friendly and efficient, and willing to help in whatever way they can.
As a senior BMS in coagulation, a lot of my time is spent with the CA1500 analysers. The support team for coagulation at Sysmex are dedicated, experienced and knowledgeable. From the point of placing a call to Sysmex, the front line staff are happy, friendly and keen to help in getting any problems rectified as quickly as possible. There is always someone available to talk a coagulation problem through with, no matter how trivial, from field engineer through to head of customer services if needed. It is this network that makes my experience with Sysmex so appreciable.
They allow a relatively loose reign with what I am allowed to attempt safely without further on site assistance (be it fixing a mechanical fault or changing software settings), and despite the geographical distance between us, if a product specialist or other team member is needed in the laboratory it is arranged rapidly and without quibble or problem.
If I have made an error with my order placing, Sysmex will arrange a drop of reagents for the next day in most instances, which has kept the coagulation services we offer running on a number of occasions.
They are very open about their practices and have allowed us to visit all areas of their Milton Keynes head quarters, and have taken us to visit the Siemens manufacturing plant in Germany where their reagents are made to allow us insight into the time and quality that goes into their work.
It is the openness, honesty, availability and evident dedication that come from the Sysmex coagulation team that I value immensely and would be hard pressed to part with.
Judith Raine
Senior Biomedical Scientist in Coagulation and Immunophenotyping
