HORIBA Medical secures contract with Spire Healthcare

Spire Healthcare has 17 pathology laboratories across the UK supporting its 37 hospitals

HORIBA Medical recently installed 17 ABX Pentra 80 haematology analysers across Spire Healthcare's network of pathology laboratories within six weeks of contract signing. Spire Healthcare is the second largest group of private hospitals in the UK, operating 17 laboratories across the UK to support its 37 hospitals. Spire also provides both routine and specialist laboratory services to numerous external clients including independent and NHS hospitals, GPs, pharmaceutical companies, research centres, universities and the UK's largest health screening organisation. As a result, it is essential Spire Healthcare delivers excellent and reliable customer service when testing over 1.5 million samples per year.

Tim Woolley, Pathology Services Manager at Spire Healthcare explained why they chose HORIBA Medical and the ABX Pentra 80. "As our previous haematology analysers approached the end of their useful life, we decided to assess the current market. We ultimately decided upon HORIBA Medical as a provider for our haematology testing, not only due to its excellent reputation, but also due to our shared ethos as customer service driven companies.”

The small footprint of the ABX Pentra 80 is due to its integrated workstation with LCD-colour touch screen and autoloader which means that the analyser is ideal for a ‘hot lab’ situation where space is at a premium.  With its proven technology used in high throughput NHS laboratories, as well as smaller centres and specialist clinics, Spire Healthcare knows this analyser, with its inbuilt autoloader providing continuous loading capability, can handle a steadily increasing workload.

Spire Healthcare was also impressed with the installation speed and training from HORIBA Medical’s dedicated engineering and technical teams. It took less than six weeks to build, deliver and run 17 analysers, from the time the contract was signed. In addition, Spire has found its laboratories to be running more efficiently, with far less analyser downtime occurring.

The cost efficiencies of using HORIBA Medical haematology analysers in all its laboratories in terms of reagents usage, engineering support and training have also been noted by Spire. “The commonality of analysers between laboratories enables our staff to easily work at different sites as required,” added Tim Woolley. “Furthermore, should our future testing levels require it; we can also readily and cost effectively move, where necessary, to higher throughput HORIBA Medical ABX Pentra 120 analysers, which use the same technology and reagents etc”.

The decision to choose HORIBA Medical as a haematology supplier was particularly pertinent, given that Spire is expanding its service and setting up new laboratories for additional external work in the near future. “Having an analyser and technology that can grow with us and, by receiving professional, proactive and friendly service and training from HORIBA Medical, enables us to provide equally excellent service to our own customers, now and in the future," concluded Tim Woolley.

Cleve Wright, UK Manager at HORIBA Medical commented, “It is our great pleasure to work with such a professional and forward thinking organisation. Being able to work directly with the key stakeholders at Spire allowed us to secure and deliver on this significant contract in record time. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership."