Laboratory services

Blood sciences, microbiology and cellular pathology laboratories.

The laboratory service within NHS Highland consists of a blood sciences laboratory, microbiology laboratory and cellular pathology laboratory at Raigmore Hospital (Inverness), with multidisciplinary laboratories at Caithness General Hospital (Wick) and Belford Hospital (Fort William).

All laboratories are accredited by UKAS against ISO15189:2022 standards. This means that each laboratory is carefully assessed by external inspectors every year to ensure that every result reported is accurate and meets the high standards of UK laboratories. Find out more about what this means at UKAS - The UK Accreditation Body - Creating Confidence.

Lorn and Islands General Hospital (Oban) laboratory is also multidisciplinary, and joined with the North NHS Highland Network on August 20th 2025.

The laboratory services process samples from across the NHS Highland area, amounting to well over 9.4 million tests annually. All types of samples come through the laboratories, from blood samples to respiratory swabs, to parts of tissues and organs. The samples are processed using both manual techniques and new state of the art analysers, by Biomedical Scientists and Medical Laboratory Assistants.