The Future of Pathology Collaboration

Mark Hindle starts today as Managing Director for the pathology collaboration across Lancashire and South Cumbria. Four hospital trusts in the region are working together to improve these pathology services for patients. Below, Mark sets out his vision for joint working with staff and partners throughout the region.

My vision can be summarised very simply: I want to see the most effective provision of the highest quality, innovative pathology services across Lancashire and South Cumbria.

We will do this by listening to the ideas and concerns of staff, involving everyone in the process. But we shouldn’t forget the patient experience and the unique opportunity we have  to improve the wider hospital and community offer as well as bettering what we do. We can take a leading role at a local and national level, sharing learning and expertise with others.

This is a new era, and as a former biomedical scientist, you can be assured that I am committed to developing services in partnership with staff, patients and stakeholders. I want my appointment will signal a new energy and approach to the collaboration, and an opportunity to develop services that are the best we can deliver.

I am conscious that there has been a lot of discussion about pathology collaboration over the last few years. I want to personally make it my job to ensure that we are listening to pathology staff and ensuring you can contribute to the changes over the next few years.

Many staff have told me that they are frustrated at the apparent lack of pace and progress with the collaboration and part of my new role will be to accelerate it so we can all see real change that improves what we do and at the same time makes it more effective and efficient.

This an exciting time - but I appreciate some of you have concerns about what it means for you. Come and talk to me - I will be visiting all the laboratories and want to meet as many of you as possible as part of my induction. I will also be holding regular meetings with staff to keep you updated and listen to your views.

Working groups have been finalising a number of clinical models and these will form the basis of the outline business case about how we configure our services in the future. The form that any future estate should be a result of the clinical model, not vice versa.

This is about what we do and not where we do it. The challenge is how we create a high quality service for patients provided by the talented staff we have working in the NHS locally, and I want everyone to be able to contribute to that. There will be many opportunities for staff to be part of the process. I am keen to do this by adopting a listening-into-action (opens in new window) approach: taking on the views of others and putting that into action via structured listening and feedback.

We will shortly be appointing a clinical director for the pathology collaboration. Together we will have an important working relationship and shared priorities, but our roles and accountabilities will be very different. This will be a clinically-led process and it is the clinicians and scientists that can deliver what is best for patients.

If you would like to discuss anything about the pathology collaboration or just make contact with me please email me.