A planned upgrade to the Telepath Laboratory Management System (LIMS) will take place on Saturday 12 September 2026, 09:00 – 18:00. During this period Telepath will be unavailable and Liverpool Clinical Laboratories (LCL) will operate under Business Continuity Procedures (BCPs).

This will affect how requests are received, processed, and reported.

Service Impact

  • Only urgent and essential work will be processed during downtime
  • Electronic reporting will be unavailable

Samples and Requests

  • Samples required for morning ward rounds must arrive in the laboratory by 07:00
  • All request forms must include full patient details and date/time of collection
  • Routine Microbiology requests should be reduced 24–48 hours prior where clinically appropriate
  • Routine work should be reduced or deferred where clinically safe.

Turnaround Times

  • Delays should be expected throughout downtime and system recovery
  • Results turnaround times for routine investigations will be significantly extended
  • Add-on requests must be phoned through and will be processed as capacity allows.

Blood Transfusion Services

Due to loss of access to historical records:

  • Two samples will be required for all patients needing blood components
  • Only urgent transfusion requests will be processed
  • Known transfusion requirements (especially platelets) should be communicated by Friday 11 September.

Actions for Clinical Areas

  • Clearly identify urgent samples
  • Send routine work in advance of downtime where possible
  • Ensure all samples are with LCL by 07:00 on the day
  • Consider rescheduling outpatient and elective activity where same-day results are required.

Results and Communication

  • Urgent results will be communicated by telephone where required
  • Ensure clinical teams are available to receive and act on verbal results.

Patient Safety

Laboratories will prioritise urgent and emergency work throughout to maintain safe patient care. BCPs will remain in place until all disciplines have completed validation following system restoration.

We appreciate your support and cooperation in helping us safely deliver this important upgrade. Further specialty specific details will be shared separately.

If you have any questions, please contact LCL’s Customer Care team on 0151 706 5888.