IBMS blog: working through the winter holidays

I work in the Clinical Biochemistry laboratory as part of the Blood Science team. We cover the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh – part of NHS Lothian. We provide a round-the-clock service so we usually have to start planning months in advance to ensure a fair rota is in place for the winter holidays. The core laboratory provides urgent analysis of electrolytes, major organ damage, drugs and cardiac markers to name a few.

But it’s not just the core lab that we staff; we have several specialist sections that have to remain operational before, during and after the holidays. The Inherited Metabolic Disorder lab may have to perform an urgent metabolic screen; the Proteins lab might have to help rule out an acute porphyria attack, and the Antenatal screening lab never gets a day off! 

Because we work through the winter holidays – often when friends and family are spending time together – we try to make our workplace as fun as we can. Every year we plan a Secret Santa day. We each bring in buffet food and enjoy it while Santa (usually a reluctant volunteer) hands the presents out. Christmas music is compulsory and the food goes as quick as your Christmas dinner. This year we are planning to wear Christmas Jumpers in aid of Save the Children - some of the jumpers are hilarious and, thankfully, some of the others are covered by a lab coat most of the day. 

Christmas trees and decorations always make a gradual appearance as we approach December. As the Health and Safety officer I always make sure the trust’s fire safety rules are adhered to. That, and my own rules – the one that is violated the most is the tackiness rule! 

Although we try to have as much fun as possible, it can be quite demanding working in the lab over Christmas and New Year. But it’s also really rewarding. Taking the good with the bad is a view shared widely across the health service. An example of this came about last year when I worked night-shift on the 31 December. 

‘Hospital at Night’ called me wishing me a happy new year... but only because they thought no-one else would. We laughed about it but, in reality, we know we aren’t forgotten about. 

Each year we receive tub-after-tub of chocolates from the various wards across the hospital thanking us for the hard work we do throughout the year. We are one of the hidden workforces in the hospital and it really means a lot when we receive messages of thanks and gifts. It makes it all worthwhile knowing we are recognised as part of the hospital team. The chocolates last five minutes but the sentiment lasts all year.