Patients and clinicians in Murrumbidgee will have access to faster access to pathology results with new technology for the region’s public laboratories.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy is invest­ing $2.8 mil­lion in the lat­est tech­nol­o­gy, includ­ing dig­i­tal solu­tions, Point of Care Test­ing and greater automation.

New chem­i­cal pathol­o­gy analy­sers, dig­i­tal mor­phol­o­gy scan­ners and point of care test­ing devices have been rolled out across the region and are already pro­vid­ing more effi­cient diag­nos­tic services.

Min­is­ter for Region­al Health Ryan Park said lab­o­ra­to­ry staff are a crit­i­cal part of our health care team.

“The results they pro­vide help our clin­i­cians make crit­i­cal deci­sions to sup­port patient care in our hospitals.

“This new equip­ment is improv­ing the way staff work in the lab­o­ra­to­ry, pro­vid­ing them with the lat­est in the tools need­ed to detect, diag­nose and treat dis­ease, as well as man­age long-term med­ical conditions.

“This invest­ment in our region­al com­mu­ni­ties is about pro­vid­ing mod­ern, state of the art test­ing equip­ment to help improve patient care and sup­port our hard­work­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry staff to con­tin­ue to pro­vide the high­est qual­i­ty pathol­o­gy ser­vice,” Min­is­ter Park said.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy Chief Exec­u­tive Vanes­sa Janis­sen said as tech­nol­o­gy advances and new ways of work­ing emerge, it’s essen­tial to ensure our lab­o­ra­to­ries and high­ly skilled sci­en­tif­ic teams have access to the lat­est technology.

“These ini­tia­tives are so impor­tant, as it sup­ports our teams to pro­vide con­sis­ten­cy in test­ing and enhances the qual­i­ty of diag­nos­tic ser­vices pro­vid­ed to clin­i­cians and patients, regard­less of where they live,” Ms Janis­sen said.

“Age­ing chem­i­cal pathol­o­gy analy­sers have already been replaced at Wag­ga Wag­ga, Coota­mundra, Young, Tumut, Deniliquin and Grif­fith. These analy­sers car­ry out a range of tests, includ­ing for liv­er and kid­ney func­tion and mon­i­tor­ing for dia­betes, mak­ing up a large pro­por­tion of test­ing ordered in hos­pi­tal,” Ms Janis­sen said.

An auto­mat­ed track sys­tem was also installed at NSW Health Pathology’s Wag­ga Wag­ga lab­o­ra­to­ry which has improved the move­ment and pro­cess­ing of samples.

The roll­out of dig­i­tal mor­phol­o­gy scan­ners and report­ing is cur­rent­ly under­way at Wag­ga Wag­ga, Young, Grif­fith, Deniliquin, Tumut and Coota­mundra. This will mod­ernise blood film analy­sis for con­di­tions like leukaemia and oth­er blood can­cers, reduce turn­around times and improve patient safety.

“Dig­i­tal mor­phol­o­gy is a game-chang­er for small­er, region­al hos­pi­tals with no haema­tol­o­gists on-site and will rev­o­lu­tionise how staff work. Pre­vi­ous­ly, films were couri­ered to anoth­er larg­er refer­ral site for review. This invest­ment strength­ens the oppor­tu­ni­ties for our region­al teams,” Ms Janis­sen said.

Once the equip­ment is oper­a­tional, the films will be reviewed by haema­tol­o­gists at those refer­ral hos­pi­tals before the patient even lands there, mean­ing treat­ment and test­ing plans are already in place.

Point of Care Test­ing tech­nol­o­gy has also already been rolled out to Young, Coota­mundra and Deniliquin hos­pi­tals, with Tumut also expect­ed to receive the devices ear­ly this year.

“Point of Care Test­ing tech­nol­o­gy pro­vides pathol­o­gy results with­in min­utes, enabling doc­tors to diag­nose patients faster and make crit­i­cal treat­ment deci­sions with­out the need to send sam­ples to a lab­o­ra­to­ry,” Ms Janis­sen said.

Once the equip­ment is oper­a­tional, the films will be reviewed by haema­tol­o­gists at those refer­ral hos­pi­tals before the patient even lands there, mean­ing treat­ment and test­ing plans are already in place.

Point of Care Test­ing tech­nol­o­gy has also already been rolled out to Young, Coota­mundra and Deniliquin hos­pi­tals, with Tumut also expect­ed to receive the devices ear­ly this year.

“Point of Care Test­ing tech­nol­o­gy pro­vides pathol­o­gy results with­in min­utes, enabling doc­tors to diag­nose patients faster and make crit­i­cal treat­ment deci­sions with­out the need to send sam­ples to a lab­o­ra­to­ry,” Ms Janis­sen said.

These devices pro­vide reli­able, accu­rate results and most tests take between 5 and 15 min­utes. So far, 95 per cent of Emer­gency Depart­ment staff in these Mur­rumbidgee hos­pi­tals have been trained and sup­port­ed in the use of the new devices.

Learn more about the roll out of dig­i­tal mor­phol­o­gy scan­ners here.

Check out the new Grif­fith Lab­o­ra­to­ry which opened in June 2025.

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