24 Hour Urine Collection
Introduction
Your doctor has requested that you provide a 24 hour urine collection which means that all urine you pass in a 24 hour period must be collected.
The passing of various substances in urine varies throughout the day and night, so a long collection is necessary in order to provide accurate and meaningful results to your doctor.
Please read these instructions carefully before starting your collection.
Beginning Your Collection
You have been provided with one 5 litre collection bottle.
We cannot accept samples which have been collected into any kind of alternative container (even water bottles). If you think that a single container per 24 hour will not be enough, please ask for an extra empty container when you pick up the container.
You may start the collection at any time of the day or night, so long as you finish the collection on the following day at the same time as you started the col-lection. The following instructions assume that you start the collection at 8am.
Performing Your Collection
1. At 8am, START THE CLOCK then im-mediately empty your bladder completely into the toilet. This first urine is discarded to ensure that only the urine you produce in the next 24 hours is collected. This must be done whether or not you feel the need. This is the start time of your collection. Note this time and date on the bottle.
2. All further urine passed throughout the day and night should be collected in the container provided (i.e. morning, afternoon, evening and in the night).
3. The following day at 8am (or whatever time you started the collection), empty your bladder completely, whether or not you feel the need, and add this specimen to the collection bottle.
This is the finish time of your collection. Please note this time and date on the bottle. The collection is now complete.
Completing Your Collection
Make sure you write your name, date of birth, date and times of collection on the bottle label in the spaces provided.
Make sure you have the request form that your doc-tor gave you. Please keep it with your urine collection and hand in both the form and the urine collection for analysis.
Please drop off your collection as soon as possible once you have completed it, and ideally within 24 hours. Try to avoid exposing your collection to extreme temperatures (e.g. next to a radiator or in a hot car), and keep it out of direct sunlight.
The results of your test may take several weeks to be ready; this is because the testing procedure is complicated, and does not mean that there is a problem with your sample.
After Your Collection
If you have been instructed to return your collection to the GP surgery, please do so. Otherwise, you can drop your collection off at one of our laboratories.
Our opening times are:
Frimley Park Hospital Monday – Friday 8am – 8pm Saturday 9am – 5pm Sunday 9am – 1pm
Heatherwood Hospital Monday—Friday 8:30am—4pm
Royal Berkshire Hospital Monday—Friday 7:30am—4:45pm
Royal Surrey County Hospital Monday – Friday 8am – 5:30pm Saturday – Sunday 8:30am – 12:30pm
St Peters Hospital Monday – Friday 8am – 6pm Saturday – Sunday 8am – 2pm
Wexham Park Hospital Monday – Friday 7:30am – 4:30pm
Our Laboratories
Blood Sciences Department Surrey Pathology Services
Frimley Park Hospital Portsmouth Road, Frimley GU16 7UJ
Royal Berkshire Hospital Craven Road, Reading RG1 5AN
Royal Surrey County Hospital Egerton Road, Guildford GU2 7XX
St Peters Hospital Guildford Road, Chertsey KT16 0PZ
Wexham Park Hospital Wexham, Slough SL2 4HL
Useful Contact Numbers
If you would like to learn more about this test, or any other test that your doctor has ordered, you can visit LabTestsOnLine which is a free resource created and updated by laboratory professionals for patients:
http://www.labtestsonline.org.uk/
For enquiries please contact our Help Line: Surrey: 01276 604595 Berkshire: 0800 0327 105
Biochemistry- Patient information for 24 hour urine collection
