About Us
NHS Pathology for the Black Country in the West
Midlands
BCPS offers comprehensive NHS services to the Black Country from our sites in
Birmingham, West Bromwich, Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton. We also offer
specialist services to other laboratories around the UK and the World.
Vitamin D Analysis
We use LC-MS/MS technology to produce high quality results for vitamin D
analysis. While closely aligned to serum results also produced by LC-MS/MS, our
results will not always compare with local laboratory methods, some of which are
meant to give a ‘screening’ result. For example, methods using immunoassay
techniques may give different results. We use quality systems to ensure our blood
spot results align closely with our venous blood vitamin D service, for which we are
one of the largest providers in the UK.
Your Results
We send your results to the email address that is provided on the consent form.
Your results are clearly shown along with reference intervals and your status. We
also use a simple ‘traffic light’ system so that you can visually compare your results
to the NHS guideline ranges.
Understanding your results
•
We encourage you to take your results to your local pharmacist or nutritionist
for further advice on supplementation if indicated.
•
Lab tests online is an excellent website to understand more about vitamin D
levels - see here…..
•
NHS Choices also offer advice on Vitamin D - see here….
Vitamin D Research in our laboratory
Vitamin D levels in our Birmingham population in 2006
Our NHS laboratory has had a specialist Vitamin laboratory since the 1990s,
when it came to be part of
Pathology at the world
famous Dudley Road
Hospital, as part of the move
of Birmingham Eye Hospital
from the city centre.
We have been involved with
many research projects
looking at Vitamin D over the
years both in the UK and
around the world. An
important publication from
2006, particularly topical at
present, is our study showing
pronounced differences in
Vitamin D deficiency in
different parts of our diverse
population. Download the full
paper here…..
Self-administration of vitamin D supplements in the general
public
We investigated unexpectedly
high results for vitamin D
discovered in some of the
general public who used our
service over the period 2013-
2015.
This paper also presents data
comparing the blood spot
method with the conventional
serum vitamin D analysis,
showing a very close
relationship. A key part of our
Quality Control is to ensure this
relationship is maintained.
The paper’s conclusions
includes a warning that
clinicians should be aware
patients may be self-
administering very high concentrations of vitamin D, especially when
investigating unexplained hypercalcaemia. Full paper to download here….
BCPS-V. 2020/18/2
Last Updated: 19th April 2024
Review Date: 19th April 2026
Our Address: Clinical Biochemistry Department, Black Country Pathology Services, City Hospital Birmingham,
B18 7QH, UK
This service to the public is provided from the SWBH NHS Trust laboratories part of BCPS. Our work is overseen by the
governance policies, procedures and quality system applying to BCPS. Please contact us if you would like further details.
Note: Birmingham Picture Library receives orders and forwards them to the laboratory and is the organisation
appearing on your bank statement. Queries are handled by the laboratory once orders are received.