Medical Lab Assistant

We are seeking an individual with excellent literacy and numeracy skills to work as a Medical Laboratory Assistant in our very busy Department of Blood Sciences which processes 1500-2000 samples per site each day.

The Medical Laboratory Assistant role involves working as a member of staff providing support to Specimen Reception, Biochemistry, Immunology, Haematology and Blood Transfusion. You will be working alongside a team of Biomedical Scientists and Associate Practitioners

Main duties of the job

Main tasks include:

Prioritising urgent and AE samples to avoid delays and ensure best patient care.

Receipt of samples from within the Hospital via a vacuum tube system or in person and from GP surgeries via courier services.

Booking a large volume of patient samples on to the Laboratory Computer System and ensuring the correct test requests are inputted. There are thousands of different test codes and you must have excellent attention to detail to select the correct codes.

Centrifuging samples and correctly loading the samples on to the relevant laboratory analysers.

Organising referral and packaging and sending of samples to other Trust sites and to other Trusts nationwide.

Answering reception and telephone queries and liaising with other Trust staff and the general public.

Receiving deliveries, ensuring they go to the correct department within Pathology and unpacking and organising the stock as requested.

Scanning request forms and ensuring printed reports are sent to the correct requesting departments, GPs or clinics in a timely manner.

If you are being interviewed you must accept an interview slot in the system to continue, even if you have arranged with the manager

You must be able to produce ALL certificates stated essential in the person specification or you will not be able to complete pre-employment checks

We provide hospital services from two acute sites - Darlington Memorial Hospital and University Hospital of North Durham. We have a centre for planned care in Bishop Auckland and provide care from community hospitals in Chester-le-Street, Shotley Bridge, Barnard Castle, Sedgefield and Weardale as well as over 80 other community based settings and providing care in patients' homes.