Dear Gordon,
My posting did not refer to Home office labs, but to Home Office approved laboratories, which can of course be in a DGH. Anyone whose blood is taken for a blood alcohol test should have been given the random choice of either of two samples taken under chain of custody and which they can have analysed independently at their own expense.
Although given the recent instances of samples being stored with the police sandwiches as pointed out by Jonathan, perhaps it's not the lab end that we should be worrying about.
Jan
Mrs. J. Still,
POCT Manager,
Biochemistry Dept,
Watford General Hospital. 01923-217998.
The views expressed in this message are personal and do not reflect West Herts NHS Hospitals Trust policy.
--- On Mon, 3/8/09, gordon challand <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: gordon challand <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Police seizure of samples
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Monday, 3 August, 2009, 10:51 PM
> Dear Mike and Janice
> I am astonished that from your angle you believe that only
> 'Home Office labs' can produce results acceptable in Court.
> First, do any 'Home Office labs' still exist? the old
> Forensic Science Service was dismantled many years ago.
> Second, the Royal Berkshire Hospital Clinical Biochemistry
> Department has produced many results over the years which
> even without a chain of custody document of the sample
> (although we try to obtain this, it is not usually possible
> to obtain it retrospectively) have been used as evidence in
> many Court cases, without anyone seriously challenging their
> authenticity or the ability of the Department to produce
> valid results which were acceptable in a legal case - one of
> these Cases which I was involved in led to a change in the
> law, in that failure to ask for medical assistance in a
> methadone toxicity case led to a charge of manslaughter
> being successfully brought.
> Best wishes
> Gordon Challand
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