Issues
arising from the Royal College of Pathologists Council meeting
held on the 2nd November 2006
The following summary of
the meeting has been submitted by Mr Stephen Halloran, member
of the South East Regional Council. If any ACB members have issues
or views that they would like aired at the next South East Regional
Council meeting please contact Stephen on telephone number: 01483
464121 or email: s.halloran@nhs.net
A bid made to the DoH for
an e-Learning initiative had been approved. In part this was due
its potential multi-professional impact. A meeting was planned
with Julia Moore, who had assembled the bid, for specialty representatives
to take this forward. It was intended that would be an aid to
learning rather than representing the whole curriculum.
Peter Furness represents
the College in its interactions with the Commercial Division of
the DoH. He had spoken with Ian Barnes regarding the introduction
of new tests into diagnostic services. Ian Barnes would be setting
up a meeting of stakeholders before the New Year.
Danielle Freedman from
Luton & Dunstable Hospital Trust stated that there had been
a tendering for Pathology services within Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire,
and the bid from L&D Hospital Trust had not been successful.
The short-list consisted of four private sector organisations
and the Bart's & London Hospital Trust. She was concerned
that the pre-qualifying questionnaire was weighted against NHS
Trusts as one of the criteria was the existing provision of services
to ‘many' other organisations.
The President had attended
the International Liaison Committee of Presidents. Many Pathology
services world-wide were encountering similar issues as we face
in the UK . In New Zealand tests were being categorised into community
practice tests (approximately 80 of these) and hospital tests
(more specialise). The 80 community tests could be put out to
tender to the private sector. This had led to a number of hospital
laboratories to close in New Zealand , and several consultant
pathologists had migrated to Australia as a consequence.
The College document on
‘Who can request a test' would be circulated for consultation
in the near future.
The Life Sciences Taskforce
had recently met with Sue Hill. The College would be tasked with
investigating the roles and responsibilities of medical and non-medical
staff (with and without the MRCPath). Funding for 1-2 years would
facilitate work with the Education Department, SACs and CATTs.
The CATTs would examine the curricula for clinical scientists,
and the appropriate qualifications for 7/8 Agenda for Change Bands.
The proposed DoH changes
to pre- and post-registration training of Clinical Scientists
was discussed. It was proposed to reduce the time for training
to State registration from 4 years to 3 years. It had also been
proposed that there should be elements of shared training between
the various Clinical Scientist professions. Formal training would
be provided by Higher Education Institutions. The number of trainees
commissioned would be linked with Consultant posts available.
It was felt that this would not work for some high growth professions
such as Clinical Genetics.
There had been the first
meeting of the Carter Steering Group. The Pilot sites would start
work in January, but the template that they would need to use
had not been finalised. Information from the Pilot sites would
be placed on the College website in due course.
The Healthcare Resources
Groups would support the DoH's Payment by Results plan by allocating
a tariff for patient episodes and the associated diagnostic test
costs. Costs would be determined in part by complexity. A National
Procedures Catalogue would be agreed, that may be based on the
list of tests developed by the Keele Benchmarking scheme. Several
key issues needed to be addressed by the Expert Working Group.
The Academy of Medical
Royal Colleges had discussed issues around the new Consultant
contract, including the inclusion of external activities. There
was a pressure on study leave budgets around the country.
The proposal put forward
by College on the issue of Membership/ Fellowship and Good standing
were generally agreed by the membership.
The Workforce database
would be implemented from January 2007.
The Workforce Review Team
had issued its final recommendations for Pathology specialties.
There were some discrepancies in the figures issued by the WRT
and the College's figures.
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