Virology

Our Virology Team offer a wide range of diagnostic and reference services to NHS Trusts, Private Laboratories, Primary Care and Community Services locally and further afield. Sheffield Laboratory Medicine is an active member of both the South Yorkshire Virology Network and National Clinical Virology Network. We offer a wide range of clinical and technical expertise through our on-site Consultant Virologists and Scientific Staff. Where urgent clinical advice is required out-of-hours we run provide on-call services. We offer an out of hours testing service for Blood Borne Virus testing associated with needle stick Injury.

Our Virology team has grown significantly over the past few years and is increasingly gaining a local, national and international reputation for scientific excellence. Our Consultants, Clinical Scientists and Biomedical Scientists represent their professions both locally and nationally as committee members, invited lecturers and as scientific meeting organisers. We participate in all relevant aspects of the Instand, QCMD and UK NEQAS Quality Assurance Schemes and performance is of a very high standard. Virology are a UKAS accredited medical laboratory No. 8509.

Case Study: Rising to the COVID Challenge

Our dedicated team of skilled and specialised scientists ensured we responded swiftly and decisively to meet the challenges of the COVID pandemic. Sheffield Laboratory Medicine was one of the first pathology services in the UK to develop their own assay that could be utilised for PCR testing of staff and patients, approved for use by Public Health England. We are immensely proud of how we responded to the pandemic, including:

Meeting all government targets to test 2,000 swabs a day over several days with just 24 hour’s notice;
Setting up a COVID testing service complete with swab packs that could be used throughout the Trust and associated areas;
Supporting local hospitals to provide COVID testing when did not have capacity
Validating assays for use nationally such as the ‘ID Now’, presented nationally to influence testing policies;
Achieving UKAS accreditation of both extracted and unextracted in-house PCR in addition to commercial assays on the Cepheid and Hologic Panther systems, plus COVID Ab testing;
Rapidly training and ensuring competency of over 25 staff to improve turnaround times;
Developing a bespoke Outbreak Management and Contact Tracing system;
Becoming one of the first laboratories in the UK to offer both NCP and Spike serology testing and a diagnostic Covid-19 serology service for patients;
Initiating a 24/7 service to help patient admissions and allow safe patient flow throughout hospitals;
Contributing to DHSC’s arm length body NERVTAG.

We strived to stayed one step ahead, implementing measures to ensure service continuity was maintained. Our track record on responsiveness and contingency planning gives our service users the confidence to keep choosing Sheffield Laboratory Medicine.

Our Virology Department is split into two divisions; Serology and Molecular Virology.

Serology

Subdivided into two sections Automated Serology and General Serology. The Serology Division provides a wide range of routine and specialised diagnostic Viral and Bacterial Serology assays and also provides a regional reference service for Hepatitis and HIV diagnosis. We also provide a regional Syphilis serology reference service.

Molecular Virology

The Molecular Virology Division is divided into two sections: Chlamydia Detection and Virus Detection. The Chlamydia section provides a routine molecular diagnostic service for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis, Gonorrhoea and Trichamonas locally and an extended chlamydia testing service. Our Virus Detection section provides a routine diagnostic virus detection service by means of molecular diagnostic techniques. The Molecular Virology division also provides a regional molecular diagnostic service for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, offering Viral Load services by random access molecular diagnostic systems and HCV Genotyping assays.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you, please contact us by telephone on 0114 226 7666 or email us at sth.labmed@nhs.net