Regional Newborn Screening Laboratory at St Thomas' 

Laboratory overview

The Newborn Screening Laboratory at St Thomas' provides screening for five disorders to Kent, Sussex and South East London (approximately 60,000 births per year).

We work closely with child health records departments, midwifery units, neonatal units, commissioners, clinicians, GPs and other newborn screening laboratories. 

The Director and Lead Scientist are members of local and regional screening performance management teams, working with commissioners and public health to ensure excellence in these programmes. 

We are a UKAS accredited medical laboratory (No.9093), accredited to ISO15189:2022 for the tests listed in the schedule of accreditation available on the UKAS website (https://www.ukas.com/wp-content/uploads/schedule_uploads/00007/9093-Medical-Single.pdf). Any tests not currently accredited, are noted as such in the test details on this website. Tests for the detection of biochemical analytes using mass spectrometry technologies are include in the laboratory's UKAS flexible scope accredited to ISO15189:2022, as described in the 'Management of UKAS Flexible Scope' document (see below). All tests currently included within that flexible scope are listed in the 'Record of tests included in Flexible Scope' document (also below). 

Key features:

• We provide testing for Phenylketonuria, Medium Chain Acyl Co-A Dehydrogenase Deficiency, Congenital Hypothyroidism, Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle Cell Disease, Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD), Homocystinuria (HCY), Glutaric Aciduria type-1 (GA-1) and Isovaleric Aciduria (IVA).
• Our team have piloted quality initiatives now adopted by the UK Newborn Screening Programme Centre, and the Failsafe project to identify any untested babies.