Blog

Important changes to skin swab reporting

Awanui Labs across Te Waipounamu (South Island) are planning a major change in the way community skin swab cultures are reported. You will notice this change from 3 November 2025. Why is this happening? We are making this change to support community antimicrobial stewardship efforts. Skin and soft tissue infections are clinical diagnoses, based upon […]

HbA1c Test Method Change

Awanui Labs have recently harmonised HbA1c testing across our South Island laboratories by transitioning from the BioRad D-100 to the Roche C513 platform. This change aligns with Awanui’s commitment to improving efficiency and maintaining high-quality patient care. As part of this harmonisation, the HBA1C reference interval was just standardised to <41 mmol/mol (compared to the […]

Matariki weekend

Our collection centres will all be closed on Friday 20 June for the Matariki public holiday.

King’s birthday weekend

All of our collection centres will be closed on Monday June 2 for the King’s birthday public holiday.

HPV testing update

Since Monday 31 March 2025, Awanui Labs has been experiencing instrumentation issues that have suspended HPV testing and reporting.  While these issues caused delays, we can confirm that no patient results were affected during this time. From today, 15 April 2025, testing has resumed. Please note, due to the backlog, it may take approximately two […]

We’re moving!

Awanui Labs is relocating the Tahunanui Collection Centre to a new, purpose-designed facility at 9 Bail Street, Stoke. This move will enable us to offer a better experience for both patients and healthcare professionals. Key benefits of the new location are: We are excited about this move and believe it will enhance the service we […]

Waitangi Day

All collection centres will be closed on Thursday 6 February for Waitangi day.

Festive season opening hours

Our collection centres are closed on all the public holidays, and opening hours during the remainder of the holiday period can be found below or downloaded here. To arrange any urgent blood test collections on Friday 27 December and Friday 3 January please contact the laboratory. GP courier collections will be operating as usual on […]

Measles reminder

Awanui Labs is reminding referrers across Aotearoa not to send patients to our collection centres when they are showing symptoms consistent with measles infection (fever, rash, with cough / coryza / conjunctivitis). This is in line with Health New Zealand/Te Whatu Ora public health recommendations or your local HealthPathways. We have taken this step for […]

Use AwanuiConnect for clinical advice!

Our new instant, secure, online clinical portal provides direct access to Awanui Clinical Microbiologists. Click below to download a flyer or here to connect.