THE New Amsterdam Regional Hospital is now offering 24 hour operations in its medical laboratory-a service which began in February.

The round the clock service began in February after the labs were relocated to a new building within the hospital compound. Services include microbiology, serology, biochemistry and haematology tests, the Department of Public Information (DPI) has reported.

Dr. Samantha Kennedy, Technical Advisor to the Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, told the DPI recently, “I remember when I was working here a couple of years ago…from 2007 to 2009 the problem we had was that there was no place for the lab technician to sleep at nights, and so it was an extra cost on the hospital. Every time somebody comes in and needs the service after 4pm you would have to get a driver and a vehicle to go for that person, and it takes time because people are living at various distances. So for that person to get the care they needed in terms of labs, it took a long time.”

Chief Executive Officer (CEP) of the hospital Colin Bynoe added, “Our laboratory services have been improved because of the new structure that we have, and we are working on getting rid of the backlog of lab work…and on getting more equipment so that we can move at a faster pace.”