Who Are We
In 1949, Dr A.B. Pearson and his son Colin began Pearson’s Laboratory, the first private pathology service in Christchurch. Ten years later in 1959 Godfrey’s Laboratory was started by Dr Noel Godfrey. In 1990 the two laboratories merged and became Medlab South. Later that year SGS (NZ) Ltd purchased a majority shareholding which it held until 1999 when it sold its New Zealand pathology and radiology practices to Sonic Healthcare Ltd. Over the past decade Medlab has expanded its operations throughout the South Island with laboratories now in Nelson, Blenheim, and Timaru Hospital as well as the main laboratory in Christchurch. We now have pathology service contracts with 4 of the DHBs in the South Island.
In the past 12 months Medlab South has provided a service to 4,500 users of our services including general practitioners, specialists, midwives, nurse practitioners, dental surgeons, registered smeartakers, rest-homes, public and private hospitals, after-hours surgeries and commercial clients. During this year we had over 740,000 individual patient episodes and carried out approximately 3,000,000 individual tests. All our referrers were supported by specialist pathologist consultation, result interpretation and education. Our infection control service provides specialist advice to over 500 clients including hospitals, rest-homes, dentists, general practice and other clients.
Medlab South has a strong culture of quality and following accepted best practice pathology standards. The organisation meets the IANZ Standard ISO15189 and is registered with NZQA as an Approved Training Establishment.
What We Do
Pathology tests are requested by health professionals to assess a person's state of health, to help make a diagnosis or to monitor a person's medical treatment.
The laboratory has a team of over 300 highly qualified technical staff working alongside our pathologists. Pathologists are doctors with specialist knowledge and experience in laboratory testing. They interpret a patient's pathology results and are available to speak directly with the doctor to discuss the significance of these tests.
Over 5500 tests are performed each day and results are sent directly to the doctor. Most results are available within 24 hours.