Harlow hospital celebrates as pathology laboratory success puts it
among top trusts

THE pathology service staff at Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) are celebrating maintaining accreditation by a national assessment body which puts it among top NHS trusts.

Most people know that when a patient comes to the hospital or visits their GP with an acute symptom – a sample is sent to the pathology laboratory (path lab).

The hospital lab scientists examine it and, in many cases, in just 24 hours the doctor treating the patient has a diagnosis. 75 per cent of all decisions affecting diagnosis or treatment involve pathology investigations. When anyone gives a sample of blood, urine, stool or tissue, it will be analysed by the path lab. As many as 2,000 samples a day are received in PAHT chemistry section alone, and almost as many in haematology.

But the lab team’s work doesn’t end there. It is all the work of the whole service that has led to maintaining accreditation in all pathology areas – the first in Essex.

So what has the 150-strong pathology team done to gain this accolade?

The PAHT lab has implemented improvements to speed up the processes, which is making a huge difference to our patients; but it has also done a lot of work to make sure that it is the best it can be in other aspects of laboratory processes, such as accuracy, reliability, record keeping, risk assessment, communication and how it deals with incidents.

This hard work has resulted in acknowledgment from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). The service is the UK’s National Accreditation Body, responsible for determining, in the public interest, the technical competence and integrity of organisations such as those offering testing, calibration and certification services. Accreditation is hard won, so the team can be justly proud in celebrating a multiple success. For the second year, the trust has maintained accreditation for its microbiology service. That makes it three in a row – having already maintained for blood sciences and cellular pathology – which makes PAHT the first NHS trust in Essex to achieve this.

Ayse Casey, Quality and Governance manager, Pathology, explained the assessment: “It’s quite an intensive process. Assessors came in for a total of four days. Technical assessor watched lab staff perform specific tasks across the laboratory to make sure that they are carried out as described in the approved standard operating procedures, and look at staff competency, safety, efficacy and quality.

The lead assessor looks at the entire system to make sure that processes meet the NHS standard; they look at the quality of audits, how the service deal with incidents, its risk assessments, communication, and department structure.

The assessors commented on the demeanour and the professionalism of the staff. They also highlighted how the department receives advice and takes it further to provide a high quality service and identify ways to improve our services.”

Ayse added: “We are the only lab in Essex that has achieved accreditation and maintained it across the pathology service. This demonstrates the commitment to high quality we have across the department. The department is staffed by people of all grades from Band 2 to consultant and everyone demonstrates the same commitment and dedication to providing high quality service to our patients.

At the closing meeting the assessors commented on our excellent staff and how it’s obvious that we’ve embedded quality into our culture to become a really good lab.

As you can imagine we’re thrilled with the feedback.

From a personal perspective I am quite simply very, very proud to work with such awesome people.”

All departments will be subject to a third surveillance visit in 12 months’ time.

Among the congratulations streaming in for the team, Andy Morris, Chief Medical Officer, said: “Absolutely brilliant! A huge thank you for all the hard work. This is a great result.”