Welcome to the Scottish Pathology Network Autumn newsletter. This edition will summarise the work that SPAN has undertaken in 2019 with an emphasis on the sustainability of our Pathology service.

October 2019 Newsletter

Scottish Pathology Network

Issue 9

Our next SPAN event will take place on the 1st of November at COSLA, Edinburgh.

The programme will explore the Sustainability of our Scottish Pathology Service through the involvement of the whole Pathology community.

This event is FREE and lunch will be provided. The event is also CPD accredited (5 points).

There will be a poster competition, exploring “our service, our future” and a £50 prize for the best poster idea. The deadline for submission is the 25th of October so get your poster in quick!

Please send your A1 poster to nss.SPAN@nhs.net

Click here to check out the event programme and don’t forget to register for the event here!

The DOG report - detailing all the good work that has been achieved - was approved by the DSG on the 5th of September and has been endorsed by Dr Gregor Smith (Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Scotland) and Karen Stewart (Healthcare Science Officer) from the Scottish Government. The report was made available at the Realistic Medicine Conference on the 8th of October.

The first NDOG meeting for phase III was held on the 19th of September. The meeting discussed the strategic direction of phase III and empha-sised the need to ensure there is a clear plan for what can be realistically achieved within the timeframe available wi th the qual i ty improvement programme.

Following their yearly report and ad hoc surveys, pathology have identified gall bladders, upper GI endoscopies and colorectal endoscopy biopsies as specific areas that will benefit from reviewing current procedures.

Following data submission by SPAN on the number of blocks taken per appendiceal case, there was variation in number of blocks taken across the laboratories in Scotland. A review audit was carried out collecting the demographic and pathological data of all patients who underwent appendectomy at NHS Lanarkshire over a 6-month period.

The data revealed that the number of blocks taken depended upon the indication of appendectomy and the block number taken was commensurate with the adequate diagnosis of the cases submitted.

Following the audit, there is a plan to provide two cassettes for standard sampling of the appendix at NHS Lanarkshire with additional cassettes added if required by the dissectors.

Demand Optimisation (DO)

SPAN workstreams DO Initiative: Appendectomy

Dates for the diary SPAN Event

The National Laboratories Programme has been set up to work closely with the clinical laboratories community in Scotland to develop a new distributed service model that is value focussed and meeting the future needs of the NHS. This will require application of new thinking, knowledge and technologies to develop services that are efficient, effective, equitable, resilient and affordable. The primary aim is to deliver a service model that enables highest quality of care of patients by NHS Scotland through delivery of the RIGHT TEST, in the RIGHT PLACE at the RIGHT TIME. There is a wealth of resources on the National Laboratories website should you wish to find out more. There are a number of enabling projects to deliver this vision and a lot of activity underway.

Distributed Service Model (DSM) – in order to develop a Distributed Service Model, there will be a focus on undertaking service reviews nationally by discipline. Cellular Pathology is the first discipline to

be reviewed. A Short Life Working Group has been convened and includes Cellular

Pathologists, scientif ic leads, oncology and partnership.

The role of this group is to advise around the process to enable all stakeholders to progress transformation. It is not a decision making group. The

group is working with the national team to identify the data sets

required to inform transformation work, to advise on user engagement and

workshop design.

It is expected that three workshops will be delivered at 6 weekly intervals which will include a range of stakeholders from across the cell pathology community. These workshops will:

identify and prioritise current and future challenges facing cellular pathology services.

identify user expectations / requirements.

where possible, draw inspiration from organisations delivering innovative models of service; with identification of transferable practice to enable the delivery of a sustainable, value focused, high quality service model providing good patient outcomes.

identify a model that enables Cellular Pathology services to be experienced as a good place to work, with manageable workloads and defined career paths leveraging the skills and capabilities across the workforce.

The outputs of the workshops will inform a business case proposing service models to meet the requirements of an evolving Scottish NHS and address existing and future challenges within cellular pathology services.

In order to help inform this work we are offering two study visits in coming months. If you would be interested in participating in one and presenting findings at the workshops then please get in touch.

If you have questions or would like to find out more, contact us at nss.nationallabsprogramme@nhs.net or look at our website.

In June 2018 the DSG convened a subgroup to explore workforce planning issues in laboratory diagnostics, chaired by Dr David Stirling, Director of Healthcare Science.

As a result, a Workforce Planning report has been drafted, supported by a major data gathering exercise to ensure the provision of accurate recommendations.

The group concluded that a different approach to workforce planning and design is needed, including an imaginative approach to training and transformative roles in order to ensure that NHS Scotland can build a workforce capable of delivering a sustainable service model.

The report has been approved by the DSG and was circulated in September 2019, making thirteen comprehensive recommendations to support our future workforce.

The group also reviewed the recommendations from the 2013 DSG Workforce Planning report and noted that, in the absence of a delivery vehicle, work was not progressed.

Workforce Planning

National Laboratories Programme Update

Roadshows

The group concluded the need for ongoing govern-ance, functioning as a subgroup of DSG, appropri-ately supported to oversee the implementation of the thirteen recommendations.

Implementation planning will commence with a mapping exercise, mapping activity currently underway against the recommendations. A workshop will be held on the 25th of November in order to discuss and launch any additional workstreams required to support this implementation.

A consortium of 11 Health Boards has been formed to take forward the creation of a specification and the subsequent procurement of a new LIMS.

To oversee this process, a Project Board and Project Team have also been established. The Project Board is jointly chaired by William Edwards, eHealth Director NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Mike Gray, Service Manager for Laboratory Medicine NHS Lothian. The Project Team have started to create a high level specification, this specification will be distributed to all Boards involved and clinical networks for comment and review.

A series of discipline subgroups and Clinical and Technical user group meetings are planned between October 2019 and January 2020, where the specification will be discussed and signed off. All Boards and clinical networks will be asked to nominate a representative for the subgroups.

It is anticipated that the procurement exercise will be completed by late 2020 early 2021, at which point a

winning bidder will be announced.

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Laboratory roadshows are underway to highlight the work of the diagnostic networks, shared services, demand optimisation and DSG.

Network representatives have engaged with lab staff across Scotland, including with NHS Ayrshire & Arran, Dumfries & Galloway, Fife and Forth Valley.

The most recent roadshow took place at Western Isles Hospital, Stornoway on the 27th of August 2019

Work is ongoing to organise roadshows at Ninewells Hospital and at Borders General Hospital.

In the meantime there will be roadshows scheduled at all of the Network Annual Events, including at the SPAN event on the 1st of November in Edinburgh and at the SCIN Radiography event on the 7th of November in Glasgow.

SPAN’s Lead Clinician Dr Liz Mallon’s tenure will come to an end in November 2019.

Mrs Jackie Walker’s tenure as Network Scientific Manager ended in July 2019, but Mr Allan Wilson will stay on as Scientific Manager until the end of March 2020. A recruitment process is currently underway for the roles of SPAN Lead Clinician and SPAN Scientific Manager.

Want to get involved

with SPAN?

Further details can be found on the SPAN website:

Or, contact us at

The National Managed Diagnostic Networks are on Twitter at @NMDNScot

www.pathology.scot.nhs.uk

NSS.SPAN@nhs.net

SPAN Succession Planning Laboratory Information Systems (LIMS)

Workforce Planning cont.