Cellular pathology is the microscopic analysis of patient tissue samples to look for the presence/absence of disease. We provide services for routine histopathology, cytopathology and frozen sections.
Results
Your results will be shared with you by the hospital clinician or GP responsible for your care. Please do not contact the cellular pathology department for results, as we cannot give results directly to patients.
We carefully examine all samples to help your clinical team make a diagnosis. We aim to provide results as soon as possible, while making sure they are accurate and complete.
Samples are prioritised based on how urgently the result is needed.
We aim to provide cellular pathology reports in time to support your care. The time it takes to report routine samples can vary depending on how complex they are. As a guide, from June 2025 to May 2026, the laboratory achieved the following average turnaround time:
- The majority of urgent biopsies were reported within 8 days of receipt.
- The majority of cancer resection cases were reported within 12 days of receipt.
- The majority of non-urgent samples were reported within 38 days of receipt; however some samples can take up to 125 days to report.
We tell your clinical team if there are any changes to how long results are likely to take. Your clinician will be able to advise you on when you should expect your results. Please ask at your appointment or procedure when you can expect to receive your results.
General practice staff and NHS staff service users who require more information and can’t access the pathology handbook via an NHS computer can request the Cellular Pathology handbook by emailing Histology@wsh.nhs.uk