Helen Joseph Haematology

Pathologists: Drs Sarolta Keresztes and M. Bernice Dhlamini

The laboratory is a clinical routine laboratory consisting of 3 sections, including Haematology, Chemistry and Microbiology with the main function to provide routine diagnostic service to the hospital and to several outlying hospitals and clinics. In addition to providing diagnostic services to the hospital, the laboratory is a referral centre providing consultative services to the smaller, outlier laboratories by reporting on referred peripheral smears and bone marrow samples. The pathologists provide consultative service to clinicians, reports on bone marrow samples (~80-100/month) and oversee a large INR clinic (~500-600 patients) located on the laboratory premise. The Haematology section performs ~10-15 000 tests/month. The laboratory participates in internal and external QC programs and is actively working towards SANAS accreditation, with the aim to provide a quality service. An on-going collaborative project is to provide full blood count (FBC) and reticulocyte parameters for monitoring iron status of pregnant HIV-1 negative, as well as positive women who are part of an antiretroviral (ARV) therapy trial at the antenatal clinic at Chris Hani Baragwaneth Hospital (CHBH). The strength of this unit is the consistent training provided one-on-one to registrars in the basic requirements of haematology, facilitating a strong mentoring process.