Our collection centres are closed on all the public holidays, but are open the other working days during the festive season, with the below exceptions. Home visit services will be operating as normal, but not on the public holidays. Note:
All of our collection centres will be closed on Labour day (Monday 23 October), and they will reopen with normal operating hours on Tuesday 24 October. Enjoy your long weekend and travel safely if you are heading away.
From Monday 2 October 2023, interim results from Awanui laboratories will display in Health Connect South (HCS) for both hospital and community testing. This change will see: This is a significant change to what is currently shown so please communicate this to all clinicians. Please see below how results will be displayed in HCS.
From Monday 2nd October 2023 we will be replacing routine faecal culture and Giardia/Cryptosporidium EIA testing with a single multiplex faecal PCR test. PCR is more sensitive than culture and EIA testing, and this new method will improve detection of enteric pathogens with a similar or superior turnaround time. This is in keeping with best […]
From 12 September 2023, the primary test for cervical screening will change to a human papillomavirus (HPV) test, with the option of self-testing. Further information about the change can be accessed via the National Screening Unit HPV primary screening webpage located here. There are two sample types that Awanui labs will be accepting for HPV […]
Medlab South have been advised by the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP) that the start date for the switch to primary HPV screening has been postponed until 12 September 2023. Further information is available from the NCSP by emailing HPVScreen@health.govt.nz. Any orders already received for the new HPV swabs will be cancelled, with orders reopening […]
We are proud to announce, Medlab South will be changing its name and brand to Awanui Labs within the next month. Moving to become Awanui Labs is a significant milestone for our organisation. Many may not be aware that Medlab South is part of a nationwide network of eight laboratory brands that span Aotearoa. Our […]
We’re upgrading our Laboratory Information Systems. Here is how it will affect referrers: From November 14, Medlab South Nelson/Marlborough will be going live with upgrades to its Laboratory Information System (LIS). This is part of a nationwide initiative that will refresh our existing LIS. Not only does this upgrade make for a more robust system, […]
We’re excited to announce the next generation of non-invasive prenatal screening, Illumiscreen, is now available in Aotearoa New Zealand from across the APHG laboratory network. Non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS), sometimes known as NIPT, has been available for quite some time to screen fetal DNA for trisomy 21 (Down), 18 (Edward), 13 (Patau). We now have the latest […]
All diagnostic laboratories in New Zealand are standardising to the same reporting units for D-Dimer. We will change our D-Dimer reporting units from mg/L to ug/L FEU (fibrinogen-equivalent units) (e.g. 0.5 mg/L to 500 ug/L FEU). The new cut-offs will be: Age (years old)Cut-off (ug/L FEU)≤ 50500≤ 60600≤ 70700≤ 80800≤ 90900>911000 Date to be implemented […]