THE pathology department at the James Paget University Hospital has been commended for developing a simple online booking system. The project had been nominated in the Health Business Awards under the IT Innovation category and although the project was not chosen as the overall winner it was highly commended.

THE pathology department at the James Paget University Hospital has been commended for developing a simple online booking system.

The project had been nominated in the Health Business Awards under the IT Innovation category and although the project was not chosen as the overall winner it was highly commended.

About 70pc of the laboratory's pathology tests are requested from GPs and the hospital team has worked closely with local practices to introduce a simple online booking system.

The system has been launched for about a year and is used by about 80pc of GPs in the Great Yarmouth and Waveney area.

Gary Nicholson, pathology manager, attended the ceremony last Thursday at the Emirates Stadium in London said the system was bringing benefits to patients, GPs and the hospital.

He said: “The system creates a unique barcode label for all specimens at the GP surgery so that when they arrive at the laboratory they can be scanned and matched to the test request.

“This electronic system also means that the request for a test arrives at the laboratory before the actual sample giving the hospital laboratory staff advance notice of incoming tests.”