Our main MS/MS analyser is now back in action. We use this analyser to analyse patient PHE levels so that their diets can be managed. The service operates 3 days per week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday with results issued Wednesday-Friday.
The contingency plan in place allowed us to issue results for 100 blood samples. We will be in touch with all our families as soon as possible about your child’s results if they are outstanding.
Our service is critical to our PKU patients and we apologise to parents and families who have been impacted because of this issue, we are very aware of how stressful this has been for our families. There is a review process in place to identify actions that will prevent this happening again and a full incident management report is being carried out.
Background:
Our MS/MS analyser was alerted as ‘out of action’ on Wednesday 8 June 2022 following planned preventative maintenance on the equipment resulted in the machine failing a quality control test.
An engineer attended on-site in CHI at Temple Street from Monday 13 June working to fix the machine with help from our scientists. A contingency plan was put in place from Thursday 16 June in order to issue results for blood samples.
At present, all babies’ samples received on Tuesday (21 June) have been analysed and reported. All samples received this week are being prioritised and we expect to report these results within the turnaround timeframe. We are simultaneously addressing the backlog.
We thank you for your patience and understanding while we managed this issue. If you have any concerns or feedback on this matter please contactpatientfeedbackandsupport@olchc.ie