Synnovis is a pathology partnership between SYNLAB UK and Ireland, and the NHS. They provide several South London NHS Trusts with state-of-the-art pathology services based on a ‘hub and spoke’ model, where urgent pathology services take place in the hospitals and all non-urgent services are delivered here at the Hub in Southwark.

Transformed into a world-class facility, filled with cutting-edge technology, the Hub processes around 70 per cent of all pathology activity currently conducted by Synnovis.

Our retrofit of the existing building now provides 150,000 sq ft of CL2 and CL3 labs across 10 floors, along with associated write-up, meeting, administration and reporting rooms, and social spaces for staff.

The Hub also includes a 24hr specimen delivery area on the ground floor, which enables samples from across South London to be continually processed. A Telelift system distributes samples throughout the building and there are two of the largest automated track systems in the Northern hemisphere on the upper levels (an Abbott System and a Kiestra System) for high throughput sample processing and testing.

When the 12-month transition to the new model is complete next summer, over 25 million samples will be processed each year. Already, the time taken to process samples for cancer patients has been significantly reduced, allowing diagnosis and treatment to be scheduled faster and more efficiently.

The upper floors required almost total replacement and refurbishment to support the laboratory functions, while support and social spaces only required a ‘light touch’ approach, with the retention of many existing finishes and fixtures saving time, budget and carbon.

An existing glazed roof area has been replaced and rebuilt to create further administration space and roof area for ventilation plant. Adaptations were also required to the external facade to create openings for oversized equipment replacement, and enhanced ventilation requirements for the CL3 laboratories.

The refurbishment was designed to achieve BREEAM Excellent, a first for the NHS. 96% of waste produced during the refurbishment was recycled or reused.