An exciting opportunity has arisen for an individual to lead our Cellular Pathology Service. The service provides for the population of Tayside and North East Fife, delivering around an annual histopathology workload of between 28,000 to 32,000 surgical pathology specimens, generating approx 100,000 paraffin blocks and >150,000 slides, 3,000 diagnostic cytology requests per annum. The workload is rising at approximately 5% per annum and the repertoire is continually expanding. In addition, the service provides a morbid anatomy for NHS Tayside.

The department is also undertaking ambitious modernisation in multiple areas including digital pathology (Philips Digital Pathology solution), laboratory information management system and molecular pathology. The department has been very successful in its equipment replacement across the service, in both supporting service improvement and routine service delivery.

You will be responsible for leading and implementing change, acting as an expert resource, providing advice and recommendations where necessary for business planning thus contributing to the delivery of local plans and priorities. The role provides a balance between professional management and operational management.

Applicants must be committed to improving the quality of the clinical service and to support career progression, encouraging and developing staff to enable them to respond to change. You must be able to evidence success in leading and managing innovation and change, managing staff, clinical service and budgets. Excellent interpersonal skills and communication skills are essential.

You must be a qualified Biomedical Scientist, registered with the Health Care Professions Council, and have developed a significant breadth of knowledge in modern laboratory principles and practice, gained through extensive postgraduate practice, underpinned by continuous professional development. 

Introduction and Description of the Area

NHS Tayside covers the area of Tayside and North Fife, with an associated population of half a million. Tayside includes the delightful rolling countryside of Angus, Perth and Kinross, bordering the Highlands to the North, the coast to the East, with the two main cities of Perth and Dundee situated along the river Tay to the South. The river setting of Dundee, Scotland’s 4th largest city is impressive. A formerly industrial interior has given way to a waterfront redevelopment, which now includes the striking riverside architecture of the V&A design museum. Praised by the New York Times as “Scotland’s coolest city”, Dundee now also has an Eden project plan in development.

Dundee’s heritage was previously coined: ‘Jute, Jam and Journalism’. Having modernised, the ‘city of discovery’ includes two large universities (Dundee and Abertay) with a thriving life sciences research hub and associated biomedical enterprises. In recent years the importance of IT has grown, and Dundee has become famous for video game development. There is a vibrant cultural scene focussed on venues like Dundee’s Caird Hall, the Perth Concert Hall and the riverside Slessor Gardens. Rich musical offerings range from the energetic live band scene, which has given rise to bands like The View and Snow Patrol, to classical concerts. Alternatively, traditional music can be found in warm cosy pubs like the Fisherman’s Inn in Broughty Ferry.

Whether living in town or in the surrounding countryside, Tayside is a fantastic place to live or to bring up a family. Commuting is minimal, and property prices are competitive with a lower cost of living than in many parts of the UK. In Dundee, the riverside scene, with its two bridges, compliments the view of many residential properties. In the countryside, the hills and highlands can often punctuate the horizon. From either, there is easy access to hiking, mountain biking, sea kayaking, and road cycling in some of the best of Scottish countryside. There is a busy Parkrun in the elegant setting of Camperdown park, with many sports clubs, pools and fitness facilities available in the area. Dundee is well served by the usual larger retail shops, with high quality independent boutiques particularly in Dundee’s West-end, Broughty Ferry, and Perth. Across Perth and Dundee there is also a decent range of state and private schools available, with suitable extracurricular provision. Due to our convenient location, there is ready and easy access to both the Highlands to the north and the central belt, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, to the south.

The Hospitals

NHS Tayside includes three main hospital sites: Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Perth Royal Infirmary in Perth, and Stracathro Hospital near Brechin. Of these, the principal hospital is Ninewells Hospital and Medical School. This is a major general teaching hospital, providing a comprehensive range of services including specialist units. Ninewells Hospital and Medical School has been designated one of the Regional Cancer Centres in Scotland and provides all Surgical, Radiotherapy, and Medical Oncology services on a single site. In addition, on the Ninewells site, there are all the major disciplines including general medicine and surgery, through to specialist areas such as gynaecological oncology, ENT, plastics, neurosurgery etc. Tayside is also host to one of the six Scottish breast screening centres.

There are three regional cancer networks in Scotland, and NHS Tayside is part of the North Cancer Alliance. These multidisciplinary networks help to collate data, examine quality performance indicators and variability driving collective improvements in services. There is regional service collaboration, for example in the area of small volume surgery and associated Multidisciplinary Teams (MDT). Embedded within Ninewells Hospital, the medical school is consistently rated one of the best in the UK, and has an active student led pathological society. The Ninewells site is very accessible by foot, bike, public transport or car, with free parking available. The hospital has an associated arboretum and successful community garden, perfect for lunch time walks.

The Pathology Department

Location

The department is housed in modern laboratories within the East block of Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, very near to the main Medical School facilities. Pathology is conveniently adjacent to the Department of Genetics and the Tayside Biorepository, synergistic for growth in molecular pathology. This laboratory complex includes some of the best facilities in Scotland.

Governance Structure and Accreditation

Pathology sits in the Specialist Services Clinical Care Group, part of the Patient Access and Assurance division, which enjoys very supportive management, working alongside services like Oncology and Genetics, our management structure aligns well with cancer pathways. There is also close working relationships with our Diagnostic colleagues in Blood Sciences and Microbiology, We are therefore well placed to optimise mutual pathways, budgets and service improvements facilitating rapid modernisation in accordance with need. The department participates in and holds full UKAS accreditation under the ISO 15189 standard with robust document control delivered through Q-Pulse. The laboratory participates fully in national technical EQA schemes (NEQAS).

The Pathology Team

The pathology department is a warm friendly working environment with a team approach to delivering the highest quality service and aiming for a culture of continuous improvement. The staff work together to provide a comprehensive diagnostic service in all aspects of histopathology, morbid anatomy and diagnostic cytopathology. Cervical cytology workload is provided by NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, with some legacy tasks remaining. The histopathology workload varies from 28,000 to 32,000 surgical pathology specimens and 2,500 non-gynae cytology requests per annum. There are 43 Healthcare scientist staff, 10 Admin & Clerical staff and 1 IT & Data Manager, with specific lead roles as follows:

• Mr Andy Munro – Quality & Training Manager and Histopathology Lead Biomedical Scientist
• Mr Dave Allen – Advanced Practitioner
• Mr Graeme Hampton – IT & Data Manager
• Mrs Jill Howie – Admin Services Manager
• Mrs Lorna McLagan – Call/Recall Administrator
• Ms Rebecca Taylor – Mortuary Section Lead

There are 15 NHS consultant pathologists (head count) including this post, with medical management responsibilities divided as follows:

• Dr Jamie Wilson – Clinical Lead
• Prof. Shaun Walsh – Lead for the Autopsy Service and Mortuary
• Dr Sharon Edwards – Team A Lead
• Dr Jennifer Wilson – Team B Lead

Furthermore, consistent with a team approach, there are consultants who take lead responsibilities for the Clinical Governance, BMS dissection training, Molecular Pathology Development and Digital Pathology.

The department keenly supports biomedical scientist (BMS) role extension and career innovation, with training in BMS dissection ongoing within the department. While we actively participate in the national BMS training school organised through the Scottish Pathology Network (SPaN), we are ambitious to move forward with this development at the pace needed. BMS dissection has been integrated within the department with one advanced practitioner in role, and a team of BMS dissectors supporting service, or undergoing training. The department is an active training department for technical trainees, with BMS career development encouraged with further training.

Facilities

The Department was refurbished in 2002, however, to support continued service expansion and on-going process management there is an interim requirement to undertake some refurbishment, prior to any longer term expansion plans.

The Department has an integrated specimen tracking system ‘Vantage’ installed, to aid improving process and in preparation for digital pathology. The Department has been successful over a number of years with equipment replacement, also in support of improved process management.

Modernisation

Consistent with a continuous improvement culture, current development projects are ongoing as follows:

Digital Pathology

The department has a contract with Philips for the implementation of digital pathology, which is in year 1 of 7. One Philips SGS high-capacity scanner is on site along with an Aperio CS2. A second UFS scanner and “megablock” scanner will be delivered on year 3 under the agreement with Philips, and in line with the gradual planned transition to digital reporting over the next few years. The system has already been integrated with our laboratory IT system, and digital pathology validation is commencing. Consistent with the benefits of digital pathology, information governance agreements are being negotiated with other Scottish NHS Boards to enable cross-site engagement, consultation and training.

Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)

The current LIMS we use is Clinisys Labcentre with the wIntegrate user interface. While NHS Tayside is participating in a national LIMS procurement programme, an interim replacement with WinPath Enteprise is expected in the short term, in line with end of life of Labcentre.

Molecular Pathology

We work closely with our colleagues in the Department of Genetics (adjacent to Pathology) and work is underway to develop a streamlined Integrated Molecular Pathology Service.

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