Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has completed the full deployment of Clinisys WinPath across its pathology services, replacing infrastructure that had been in use for over 30 years. The final phase — blood transfusion and blood sciences — went live on 20 April 2026, completing a two-phase programme that began with microbiology and cellular pathology in September 2025.
The trust processes more than 9.2 million blood sciences tests annually, alongside 500,000 microbiology tests, 140,000 cellular pathology slides across 21,500 cases, and 71,000 transfusion tests. At that volume, the sequencing of the deployment was as much a patient safety decision as a project management one.
Mark Gordon, Associate Divisional Director for Pathology at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, said the phased approach was deliberate. "We made the decision early on to split the go-live into two phases to ensure patient safety and reduce risk. Attempting a single implementation alongside other major changes, including analyser upgrades, would have been incredibly challenging."
A critical element of the second phase was migrating approximately 30 years of transfusion data into WinPath, a process requiring large-scale data reviews and case sampling to satisfy ISO compliance requirements. Blood sciences alone processes around 31,000 tests daily. Gordon described the actual transition as more stable than anticipated, crediting the volume of preparation and testing carried out in advance.
GP practices — which account for a significant share of the trust's pathology demand — were engaged early, including support for the shift to HL7 messaging. Post-go-live feedback was largely positive, with issues limited to result formatting and parameter ordering, resolved quickly through established channels.
Jamie Stevens, senior project manager at Clinisys, said the outcome reflected the discipline built into the project structure. "This was a significant project, with a new LIMS that was being conducted alongside other ambitious projects. It worked because it was a well-structured project, with excellent engagement and communications."
The deployment forms part of the broader Greater Manchester LIMS programme. The trust is now looking at further optimisation of WinPath, including sample tracking improvements and expanded digital workflows, with test naming and configuration standardisation flagged as a priority for future regional integration phases.
Clinisys operates in over 4,000 laboratories across 39 countries and reported more than 56 go-lives in the past 12 months.
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