Jill Westgarth

Canterbury Health Laboratories (CHL) is the leading medical diagnostic reference laboratory in New Zealand with laboratory links and collaborative partners throughout New Zealand and the World. Operating from modern well equipped facilities opposite Christchurch Hospital, CHL provides laboratory services to general practice surgeries throughout the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), provides a level 6 tertiary care laboratory service for CDHB’s hospitals and performs reference tests for all medical diagnostic laboratories within New Zealand. Canterbury Health Laboratories offers specialist clinical and medico-legal tests, and has significant experience in providing laboratory testing services to both primary and secondary care settings. Further to this, Canterbury Health Laboratories runs an extensive routine automated laboratory service, with a long history of collaborative relationships over specialist testing. This includes involvement in contracts for the Newborn Metabolic Screening Program, Quality Improvements for Antenatal Downs Screening and Other Conditions, the National Cervical Screening Programme and acting as the WHO National Measles reference laboratory. Daily requests are received to perform specialist tests from laboratories and workplaces throughout New Zealand, using an established national courier network which uplifts specimens at the end of each working day (between 1630 and 1700). Canterbury Health Laboratories has a highly skilled workforce of dedicated staff with close links to many clinical professionals in various speciality areas throughout New Zealand. It is the combination of all of these provided services that ensure Canterbury Health Laboratories has the biggest ‘catchment’ area of any medical laboratory in New Zealand.