Medical Laboratory Assistant

Job overview

You don’t need a Biomedical Science degree to work as a Medical Laboratory Assistant, all you need is a good eye for detail, great communication, and good organisation skills.

If you’ve ever wondered where your medical results come from, how it’s done and the impact this has, now’s your chance to find out and support the efforts of the professionals working in this environment.

Here at the Synnovis Blood Sciences Laboratories at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals you’ll be supporting the work of Biomedical Scientists and other clinical colleagues, who undertake various tests and investigations to support the healthcare of patients.

These particular posts would suit anyone with an interest in science and medicine but not necessarily with a degree. They are not Trainee Biomedical Scientist positions, please look out for our Trainee posts when available. There are other developmental opportunities for staff who do not wish to pursue academia. This type of role offers you a steady and secure career which could lead to supervisor or manager level positions down the line and will certainly get you out of the office! You will be working in a fast-paced laboratory environment, which for you, makes for varied, interesting, and sometimes challenging work; no 2 days are ever the same.

This role requires covering a 24/7/365 service. You must be able to work flexibly across core hours, evenings, nights and weekends.

Main duties of the job

The laboratory services are accredited to UKAS 15189 standards and we are also accredited as a training laboratory for the IBMS Certificate of Achievement, Registration and Specialist portfolios.

The Blood Sciences Laboratories are based on two sites, St. Thomas’ and Guy’s, both of which have very diverse cultures. There is a wide breadth of clinical specialties associated with both of these prestigious teaching hospitals including the Evelina children’s hospital on site at STH and Cancer Centre on the Guys site.

This is a varied role and duties will be dependent on which section of the department or which shift you are working. You will work within a team, consisting of other Medical Laboratory Assistants (MLAs) and Biomedical Scientists (BMS). Main duties include assisting with quality assurance and stock related functions, equipment maintenance and preparing patient samples for analysis using a variety of specialist equipment. You will also be filing and retrieving samples, checking outstanding work files, ordering and managing stock levels; data entry and answering telephone enquiries.

IT systems across the Trust have been upgraded along with some of the analytical instruments in Blood sciences. You will therefore be using some of the most up to date systems available.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

At Synnovis, we are currently shaping the future of pathology services by creating a world-leading Hub and Spoke pathology network with our NHS partners.

Technical

• To safely handle, use and dispose of blood or other body fluids or hazardous chemicals under supervision.
• Advise service users on sample preservation and transportation to laboratory
• To undertake preventative maintenance on laboratory instruments and equipment prior to them being used for patient investigations.
• To prepare store and use reagents required for laboratory investigations
• Assist in maintaining stock.
• To perform manual, semi-automated and fully-automated laboratory investigations.
• Process samples under supervision for clinical trials and research and development projects as and when required
• Ensure quality control measures are carried out to monitor analytical performance, take corrective action where applicable and report any failures to a senior member of staff
• Participate in internal and external quality assurance programmes
• To report to the section supervisor any instance or event which may cause a service delivery failure.
• To file samples following appropriate protocols and keep records as required
• Dispose of excess and tested samples according to departmental protocols
• Attend and support clinics and satellite labs as and when required
• To receive, sort and log patient samples on to the laboratory information system.
• To store process or dispatch patient samples according to laboratory procedures.

Laboratory Informatics

• To comply with local and national policies for the safe, secure and confidential processing, and storage of patient and other laboratory information.
• To use the Laboratory Information System according to the authorised protocols.
• To maintain the integrity and accuracy of laboratory databases.Administrative
• To ensure that records are kept up to date and stored safely to ensure compliance with good work practices required for the standard of UKAS ISO 15189.
• Undertake work file management to ensure all results are reported with agreed turnaround time.
• To use departmental resources efficiently and advice the Section Supervisor when stocks of reagents and consumables are approaching minimum stock levels.
• To participate in the data collection for the operation performance management system (OPMS)
• Data entry for EQA samples.

General

• To comply with the policies and procedures of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust and Synnovis.
• To observe and adhere to local and national health and safety policies.
• To keep the workplace and workbenches clean and tidy.
• To maintain good work relations with all members of staff, and to promote effective teamwork.
• To treat everyone associated with Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Trust and Synnovis with courtesy and respect.
• To observe national and local guidance on patient and commercial confidentiality.
• Keep appropriate records of all communications.
• To ensure compliance with all local and national standards of work practice.
• Propose changes to Standard Operating Procedures to senior staff and aid in implementation of such changes, as and when required
• To maintain and promote the professional image of Blood Sciences, Synnovis, Pathology and Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Trust.
• To comply with the training and competence policy and procedure
• To participate in and contribute to the Performance Planning and Review (PPR) process.