Maintenance affecting the Pathology service: 19 May, 6am – 8am

May 18, 2022

Please be aware that essential IT maintenance is taking place on Thursday 19 May between 6am – 8am which will affect the Pathology service at Sandwell and City.

During the maintenance, Unity will remain fully available; however, from 6am to 8am on Thursday 19 May colleagues will need to revert to requesting Microbiology tests and Blood Bank requests on paper forms as well as on Unity.

Paper requests will be required to process pathology samples during the maintenance period and 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. 

Urgent results will be phoned to the affected users during the downtime.

The activity will be closely monitored, and desktop alerts will be issued from 4am advising colleagues of the need to revert to business continuity plans (BCPs) for requesting Microbiology tests and Blood Bank requests during the maintenance.

Should you have any further queries then please do call the IT service desk on ext. 4050 or 0121 507 4050 for home workers.