أضيفت : 28/مايو/2006 في 4:34مساء | IP Logged

CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRY

General enquiry: (852) 2855 3249

Originally established in 1982 as the Clinical Biochemistry Unit within the Hospital Pathology Service of Queen Mary Hospital, it became the Department of Clinical Biochemistry when the Hospital Authority took over the administration of the Hospital Pathology Service in 1994. The Department of Clinical Biochemistry, being one of the sixteen independent clinical departments in QMH, underwent further administrative restructuring in December, 97 when it was merged with the Department of Pathology. It then became the Division of Clinical Biochemistry within the Department of Pathology, while the latter was since re-titled the Department of Pathology and Clinical Biochemistry.

The Division of Clinical Biochemistry provides a comprehensive biochemical laboratory service to both Queen Mary Hospital as well as other healthcare institutions territory-wide. Consultation and laboratory testing support also extend to Macau over the past few years. The Division, located in LG1 and LG2 of Block K, handles over 1900 patient samples daily. The workload has increased substantially since its taking over of the laboratory services of Tung Wah Hospital and the Specialist Out-patient Clinics at Sai Ying Pun Jockey Club Polyclinics in the middle of year 2000 under the administrative directive of the Hospital Authority. The Division is organized into major laboratory sections, viz., Endocrinology and Molecular Biology, Lipidology, Diagnostic Enzymology, Inherited Metabolic Disorders, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Toxicology, Micronutrient and Heavy Metal, Rapid Response Laboratory, General Chemistry, Paediatric Chemistry Sections. The laboratory provides analytical support to clinical drug trials coordinated by the Clinical Trials Centre of The University of Hong Kong at Queen Mary Hospital. Senior staff of the Division also participate in teaching of medical and science undergraduates in both universities, and supervise postgraduate students studying for higher degrees.

Considerable changes in terms of both staff structure and resource allocation have taken place since 1994. The Division of Clinical Biochemistry (formerly the Department of Clinical Biochemistry) has undergone a dramatic downsizing in manpower resulting in an over 35% reduction of staff strength over the past 5 years. Apart from the tremendous cut in technical staff workforce, there has also been a concomitant de-establishment of the Senior Hospital Biochemist and the Senior Consultant posts in 1996 and 1997, respectively. The Division strives to cope with the surging workload through continuous re-engineering of the operational logistics, wider application of laboratory computerization and, mostly importantly, total commitment of the staff. Nonetheless the constant shortage of qualified medical and scientific staff has inevitably hampered the all-important progress in research and development and has rendered it difficult to fulfill the foremost mission of providing a quality clinical laboratory service to our patients.