Regional Newborn Screening Laboratory at Blackfriars Hub

Laboratory overview

The Newborn Screening Laboratory at the Synnovis Blackfriars Hub provides screening, for the disorders listed below, to Kent, Sussex and South East London (approximately 50,000 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 Deputy Director are members of local and regional screening performance management teams, working with commissioners and public health to ensure excellence in these programmes. 

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), Isovaleric Aciduria (IVA) and Tyrosinaemia Type 1 (HT1).
• Our team have piloted quality initiatives now adopted by the UK Newborn Screening Programme Centre, and the Failsafe project to identify any untested babies.
• We are also one of the laboratories included in the SCID evaluation, so we are currently screening for SCID also (Severe Combined Immunodeficiency).