Specialist Biomedical Scientist - Haematology | Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced HCPC registered Biomedical Scientist at Liverpool Clinical Laboratories in Haematology/Transfusion. This service is provided 24/7 cover across four separate hospital sites.

The laboratory based at the new CSSB facility at Royal Liverpool supports the Clatterbridge Cancer Care Hospital Liverpool and regional specialists’ services such as Haemophilia centre and the Haemoglobinopathy and Antenatal Screening Service. The laboratory based at Aintree University Hospital supports the regions Trauma Centre. This laboratory also serves the Walton Neurological Centre. Broadgreen Hospital, which is co-located with Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, is home to several elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist rehabilitation. The Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust is the main hospital delivering the highest standards of care for women, babies, and families.

Main duties of this role are to perform the validation of analytical data prior to result reporting and the selection and provision of suitable blood and blood products. You will have experience of LIMS, other IT systems and of Quality Management Systems and you will be expected to train all other appropriate grades of staff and support the Senior Biomedical Scientists.

You will also support the operational functionality of the laboratory areas including calibrating, maintaining, and operating complex analytical equipment and regularly reviewing internal quality control and external quality assurance data trends. The department is UKAS ISO 15189:2021 accredited and accredited by the IBMS as a training laboratory.

Our staff rotate across the sites so are experiencing different clinical needs and requirements specific to the hospital which adds to the interest in the role. Some areas require autonomous working which instils a great sense of achievement delivering the service.

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital. We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.

UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond. For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.

Aintree University Hospital is the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility. Broadgreen Hospital is home to elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation. Liverpool Women’s Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK’s largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

To assess the suitability and appropriateness of samples received, liaising with medical staff as appropriate. To ensure satisfactory completion and validation of routine and specialist haematology & transfusion analyses. To use specialist knowledge across a range of procedures, authorise test results and initiate further tests as appropriate, e.g., Paul Bunnell, haemaglobinopathy investigation, haematinics.

To ensure data integrity when entering demographics and results into the laboratory information system. Use acquired skills and experience for film reporting, malaria diagnosis and selection of films for referral to Haematologist. To take responsibility for finishing, checking, validating, and authorising colleagues’ work as necessary.

To check the validity and reliability of analytical processes, maintaining and monitoring satisfactory performance by internal quality control and external quality assessment. To ensure prompt referral of results, which exceed action limits, to senior or department medical staff, wards, and GPs, performing technical interpretation of partial, complex, or conflicting results to facilitate patient care.

To set up and check instrumentation for correct operation, troubleshooting and correcting minor faults, reporting major faults to senior staff or instrument engineers as appropriate. Maintain instrument, QC and reagent logs, and utilise resources cost effectively. To monitor and store consumables and reagents.

To assume enhanced responsibility in the absence of supervisory and other staff as necessitated by regular rota commitments. To take responsibility for selection of correct blood, and blood products, involving antibody identification and patient phenotyping, to make best use of stocks, and to ensure the integrity of all blood and blood products for patient transfusion, using acquired knowledge of laboratory procedures and National Blood Transfusion guidelines.

To participate in developmental work, performing specialised tests when necessary, and assisting in any clinical trials. To work independently at large, offsite, outpatient clinics providing POCT at a satellite laboratory requiring data entry, processing and generation of treatment reports. When required to visit wards, or clinics to perform ‘Bleeding Times’ on patients.

To participate in the trusts annual joint review process, relevant to grade. To provide a rapid, reliable and efficient results service by performing a comprehensive range of routine and specialist haematology & transfusion analyses, or referral to other providers as needed.