2020 was a challenging year for everyone. We’d like to thank all of our customers for their continued loyalty last year, we look forward to working with you again in 2021.
Before we dive into another busy year, we’d like to share our review of 2020 and what you can expect from SLS Laboratory Services in 2021.
UKAS ACCREDITATIONS AND APPROVED LABORATORY STATUS
In 2020 both our Pathology and Toxicology laboratories successfully maintained their UKAS accreditations. SLS Laboratory Services is both a UKAS 17025 accredited Testing Laboratory, as well as UKAS 15189 accredited Medical Testing Laboratory, offering a wide range of pathology tests as well as drug and alcohol testing. SLS are also a DHSC Approved Provider for COVID-19 testing on Day 5 for the new Test to Release Scheme in England and are also on the list of approved COVID-19 testing laboratories.
PATHOLOGY
EXPANDING THE TEAM AND THE LABORATORY
2020 was an extremely busy and exciting year for our pathology laboratory, a year in which we welcomed 4 new Medical Laboratory Assistants as well as additional Biomedical Scientist resource. Our sample reception project was completed, relocating to a larger area to fulfil significantly higher volumes of samples.
As well as investing in people we continued to invest in state of the art analysers, over the past 12-28 months doubling the capacity of our general pathology testing, as well as new analysers for Haematology and Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin (CDT) screening.
LAUNCH OF COVID-19 TESTING
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on us all during 2020, we not only adapted our working practices to ensure a safe working environment for all our employees, our pathology team worked round the clock to validate, launch and support our COVID-19 PCR Swab and Antibody testing.
BACK TO WORK COVID-19 TESTING
During 2020 SLS Laboratory Services supported a wide range of existing and new customers to enable them to incorporate COVID-19 testing into their back to work programmes – from transport, construction, travel companies to major sporting events.
A true team effort from multiple departments at SLS Laboratory Services as well as other SLS laboratories in the UK and across Europe. In 2021 we will continue to offer a variety of COVID-19 tests and our clinically led innovations will continue to support customers.
BLADDER CANCER TEST
Whilst COVID-19 overshadowed most of 2020, we were also pleased to announce a new a non-invasive diagnostic test for bladder cancer. ADXBLADDER is available to urologists both for use in initial haematuria investigations as well as post bladder cancer treatment.
DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING
ADAPTING TO COVID-19
In response to COVID-19, our front line drug and alcohol Collection Technicians were equipped with the appropriate Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), including aprons, gloves and goggles to collect samples safely.
We are proud to have been able to provide a continuous, uninterrupted service to our drug and alcohol testing customers in 2020:
- Our national sample collection service was available throughout the pandemic running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They also introduced a remote audit process in order to maintain competency and deliver refresher training.
- Our toxicology laboratory remained fully operational while respecting social distancing criteria, with non-laboratory staff working remotely wherever possible
- We continued to offer our drug and alcohol testing customers a number of training options, using an online webinar platform
A number of our drug and alcohol Collection Technicians have been trained to collect COVID-19 samples, enabling us to further support customers with their back to work COVID-19 testing.
A huge thank you to our team for their commitment to customer service.
DVLA SELECTS SLS LABORATORY SERVICES AS IT’S PREFERRED TESTING SUPPLIER
In September we announced that SLS Laboratory Services had been selected as the successful supplier for The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s drug and alcohol testing requirements.
CLIENT EDUCATION
Last year we continued our client education series sharing regular blogs and webinars to ensure your business remains up to date with the latest industry news.
NET PROMOTER SCORE
Client satisfaction is at the heart of everything we do, so we were delighted that our training team achieved a Net Promoter® Score (NPS) of 68.7. This demonstrates our customer’s overall satisfaction with our training services and their willingness to recommend us to others.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN 2021
While life may not fully return to normal in 2021, it does promise to be another exciting year as we:
- Further increase our COVID-19 test options and capacity to help customers and their back to work programmes
- Launch more drug testing panels in line with the changing pattern of drug misuse
- Launch a new customer ‘HelpHub’ to make doing business with SLS Laboratory Services even easier
To find out more about how SLS Laboratory Services can support you with a Drug and Alcohol Policy and testing solutions, you can call us on 01873 856688.