Maintenance affecting Pathology: Thursday 2 May, 6am – 8am

April 24, 2024

Please be aware that an essential IT maintenance is taking place on Thursday 2 May from 6am to 8am by our external pathology vendor which will affect the pathology service at Sandwell and City.

During the maintenance, Unity will remain fully available; however, from 6am to 8am all pathology orders placed in Unity will queue for up to two hours until service is restored. Colleagues will need to revert to requesting all pathology requests on paper forms as well as on Unity during the maintenance.

As soon as the maintenance is complete, orders will be booked in electronically and reported through to message centre ready for endorsement. Colleagues can continue to make ICE requests during the downtime but there will be a delay receiving results. 

The laboratory will prioritise the most urgent requests from ED, ITU/CCS, AMU, Coronary Care and Paediatrics/Neonates during this period. Urgent results will continue to be phoned to the requestor during the downtime.

The activity will be closely monitored, and desk top alerts will be issued from 4am advising colleagues of the need to revert to BCP during the maintenance.

Should you have any further queries then please pathology on 0121 507 6600 or email on swbh.pathology-it@nhs.net.