New Urine Tubes for MC&S

The PHE Public Health Laboratory Birmingham are changing the type of sample tubes required for urines sent for microscopy, culture and sensitivity testing (M,C&S). The new tubes will fit directly onto the laboratory’s new automated analysers which will speed up the processing of urines. This is part of the quality improvement and technical modernisation strategy of the laboratory. The smaller volume required to fill the new style boric acid containers should also reduce the number of samples we cannot process due to them being under-filled. For urines for tests other than M,C&S (e.g. Pregnancy test, legionella antigen, virology, TB culture, chlamydia and gonorrhoea) please continue to use the sample containers currently required for those tests. For CSF's and other sterile sites e.g. Ascitic fluids, Knee Aspirates, Pleural fluids, PD fluids, Pus samples and any other fluids please use a 20ml universal for these samples.