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Learn how infectious disease POCT services have evolved across Wales. Discover how Louise's role as a Biomedical Scientist has evolved to National infectious disease POCT lead. Discover how POCT projects are contributing towards the World Health Organisations Hepatitis C elimination targets and how we foresee future POCT services expanding.

Clostridioides difficile is responsible for the eponymous C. difficile infection (CDI). Faecal microbiota transplant (FMT), a NICE recommended treatment for recurrent CDI, is effective but logistic and safety concerns remain.

With the advent of non-donor derived products, the presentation will outline the principles and evidence related to correcting gut dysbiosis and explore whether there is a need for current or expanded FMT services in the future.

Blood Transfusion follows binary guidelines designed to protect against the formation of allo red cell antibodies capable of causing Haemolytic Disease of the Foetus and Newborn. For the first time, in 2021, the England and Wales Census included a gender identity question, ‘Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?’. 0.5% of respondents answered ‘No’ (262 000 people) of which 48 000 identified as a trans man, 30 000 as non-binary and 18 000 as another gender identity. Thus, there is a small, but significant, population of Transgender and Gender Diverse (TGD) individuals in society.

What are the implications for Blood Transfusion? There are several scenarios:

The lab could receive a sample labelled male and issue blood components which fail to meet the requirements of Kell negative and, if applicable, CDE negative red cells to someone with childbearing potential.

The lab could receive an antenatal sample labelled male and the LIMS does not allow staff to perform all the same testing and product issuing as it would for a female.

Some TGD individuals who have transitioned may get a new NHS number. Lab staff may be unaware and lab records are not merged which means all future transfusion requests are relying solely on antibody screening results with no historical transfusion information.

The clinical consequences of these errors are missed incompatibilities, special requirements not met (SRNM) errors and immediate or delayed transfusion reactions with a potential for major morbidity or mortality.?All the circumstances described above illustrate that provision of healthcare is not uniform?for?all patients in the UK and could be described as indirect discrimination - a policy or practice that is identical for all people but has an unfair or disproportionate effect on a people with a protected characteristic.

Generation X,Y,Z: Ageism in the workplace and its impact on service delivery

Guided relaxation session

Help, nothing compatible

HR and OH departments – how to work with them to achieve the best results

Understanding your laboratories baseline data is the most important first step to identify where to improve services. Data is key to understanding preanalytical processes, simple things such as the location of phlebotomy clinics, the timings of transport collections, the number of paper requests all have an impact on specimen reception workflows and specimen turnaround times.

Many labs still continue to measure a specimen's turnaround time from the moment it arrives at the lab, which is too late.

We will demonstrate how data modelling and innovative transport solutions will improve system workflows, reduce specimen rejections, smooth out specimen arrivals, reduce the output of CO2 and meet the preanalytical quality requirements for your next UKAS inspection.

Explanation of the various serological and molecular techniques that are available to identify novel blood groups. Discussing how these cases may present within the hospital and RCI labortories through to publication and ratification at the International Society of Blood Transfusion.

It’s life, but not as we know it. Emerging parasitic diseases