Microbiology

The department offers a comprehensive service for bacteriology, mycology, parasitology, serology and virology

The Microbiology Department is situated in the Edward Jenner Pathology Laboratories building on the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital site. (Please note there is no Microbiology laboratory on the Cheltenham General site).

Most work is carried out on site at Gloucestershire Royal, although some more specialized investigations are sent to expert laboratories throughout the country. A full list of the reference laboratories used by the Microbiology department is available – contact us for more information.

The Andrology service is licenced by the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority.

Microbiology staff

We currently have a team of more than 60 staff dealing with some 400,000 requests a year.

There is a variety of staff grades employed within the department, all of whom will be willing to help with any problems you may have.

Medical Laboratory Assistants (MLA)

These staff undertake a variety of clerical and basic, supervised laboratory work. Often they will give an initial response to telephone enquiries. MLAs have a limited technical knowledge and in appropriate cases your enquiry will be referred to a more qualified member of staff.

Biomedical Scientists (BMS)

These are the specialist healthcare scientists who carry out the interpretive microbiological tasks within the laboratory. All of our BMSs are registered with the Health Professions Council. All BMS staff should be able to help with any technical queries. Senior BMS staff will also be able to offer interpretation of incomplete reports.

Consultant Microbiologists

These are the only medically qualified members of the laboratory staff and are available to provide clinical advice. The Consultant Microbiologists also take a lead role in the various Control of Infection teams and can advise on infection control issues.

Quality assurance

There are a variety of factors that may influence the outcome of any test/ procedure performed in the laboratory, these can occur during the pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical stages.

The following document lists the potential factors that could adversely influence the outcome of a test/procedure (See: Factors Affecting Microbiology Tests). Where possible, control measures should be taken to minimise the impact of these variables, thereby increasing the accuracy and quality of the results produced by the laboratory for our service users.

Quantitative results can also have an associated level of variability, this is assessed by the laboratory and used to monitor the ongoing performance of the procedures and denote the level of confidence we have in the results provided, details can be provided on request.