Speakers
Helen Bruce
Denise Cook
Sarah Curtis
Parallel session
Chair: Helen Bruce
2.20 - 2.50 - The curiosity of change - Denise Cook
Our organisations in all sectors have had to face and cope with massive change, both externally and internally for many years. This often brings turbulence to our different environments, including our work environments. None of us would have predicted the scale and pace of change through the pandemic, and emerging from this time we feel the effect of this huge turbulence, which has altered irrevocably the psychological contract between our organisations and our employees.
The impact of this is that for possibly the first time, we have had to think about what we can do for our staff as well what they can do for us. It is no longer about the just managing a change, we must now look at our leadership style and consider managing change with compassion. In this context, leadership as well as management.
2.50 - 3.20 - Crafting Care: A collaborative journey towards evidence-based care sets development within a pathology network - Sarah Curtis
The Cheshire and Merseyside Pathology Network (CMPN) encompasses seven provider sites, each playing a vital role in delivering high-quality healthcare services: Countess of Chester Hospital, Mersey and West Lancashire Hospitals, Liverpool University Hospitals, Warrington and Halton Hospitals, Wirral University Hospitals, Alder Hey Children's Hospital and The Walton Centre.
We have developed a laboratory-led collaborative and evidence-based approach to the development of harmonised care sets for primary care. The overarching goal is to enhance the standard of clinical care, foster system sustainability, and minimize unwarranted variation across the network.
Upon conducting an initial assessment of the existing configurations across all CMPN sites, benchmarking revealed a "Top Ten" of common themes for prioritisation, which also concorded with an outline of care sets designed by colleagues at NHS Tayside, categorised into “New presentations” and “Long term conditions” and generously shared with us, demonstrating the value of developing communities of practice.
Our recommendations stem from a thorough examination of multiple clinical guidelines and other sources of best practices. Each recommendation underwent rigorous evaluation across four key domains: clinical safety and effectiveness including equality impact, standardisation (addressing regional and national variation, including insights from the pathology GIRFT report), sustainability (considering financial implications and workload impacts), and practicality (assessing ease of implementation across diverse laboratory and informatics landscapes).
We discovered that simultaneous development of agreed harmonised profiles by the same guiding principles to be key to our success, enabling clear and consistent understanding of precise components included in every care set.
This was truly a collaborative effort, with contribution and engagement from every organisation and a general practitioner within the group membership. As we continue to build upon these robust foundations, we are confident that our approach will propel us closer to our target operating model. This model envisions the consolidation of secondary care pathology services onto a unified laboratory information management system, coupled with a single ICE order communications system for primary care, thus streamlining operations and enhancing overall efficiency across the network.
3.20 - 3.50 - Discussion panel. Service crisis: Developing collaborative solutions - Denise Cook, Sarah Curtis
The health needs of the population are changing, and many people need more co-ordinated care across primary, community, social and our hospital services. More co-ordinated care requires us to collaborate well across organisational and professional boundaries. How do we do this with increasing pressure in our services and teams?
In this session we will share
Helen is currently Consultant Clinical Scientist and Specialty Lead for Routine Biochemistry services at Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services. Following her initial training at St George’s Hospital in London she continued her career at Epson and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, before starting in Guildford in 2013. In addition to her current role she is also the Deputy director at the Southern Hub of the Bowel Cancer Screening programme. Helen’s main area of interests are External Quality Assurance and Internal Quality Control best practice.
Denise is Executive Lead for Governance, Quality, Leadership & Development for Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services (BSPS).
Denise is a member of the Kings Fund Alumni having completed the Top Manager Programme in 2022. She is recognized for her work in senior leadership development, transforming individuals, teams, organisations and systems. Her proven techniques are informed by mastery of cutting edge disciplines applied in real life settings. She has a keen interest in professional values, behavioural styles and emotional agility within the workplace and endeavours to coach and develop team, individual and system potential, particularly in challenging times. She combines these elements to bring about a meaningful shift in peoples motivation and actions. She is also a trained professional coach and mentor working with individuals and teams in varying sectors.
Denise served as Senior Director of Operations for Synnovis LLP, Executive Lead for Clinical Governance, Quality and Service Improvement for Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services; General Manager for Infection and Immunity Science for Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services and Lead Biomedical Scientist at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Denise began her career as a Junior A MLSO in microbiology through to specialist, senior and Lead Biomedical Scientist, working in District General, larger teaching hospitals before moving into senior leadership and executive roles.
I am passionate about harnessing technology and data in the pursuit of excellence in the delivery of the clinical scientific service. After completing my master's degree in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, I embarked on a journey in clinical science, commencing my training at Northwick Park Hospital in Middlesex. Following this foundational experience, I transitioned to a substantive position in Liverpool in 2006, initially anticipating a brief stay of a year or two. However, nearly two decades later, I find myself deeply rooted and proud to be an integral member of the pioneering team at Liverpool Clinical Laboratories.
My journey as a clinical lead for informatics has been shaped by my understanding of LIMS, middleware, and order communication systems, coupled with an appreciation of the systems integration that supports the wider healthcare service. Guided by my membership of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics (now transferred to the British Computing Society), I have embraced two transformative opportunities sponsored by NHS England: the Topol Digital Fellowship programme and my current pursuit of a PGCert in Clinical Data Science. These experiences have not only expanded my clinical informatics and digital transformation skillset but have also facilitated connection with digitally minded peers across diverse clinical disciplines within the health service. My commitment to advancing healthcare through innovation and collaboration continues to drive my passion to elevate healthcare delivery.
I am currently the Head of Pathology for the South-West region of NHSE.
Previously I have been the Pathology service manager in Truro, a Pathology Incident Director during the covid pandemic and a member of the Peninsula Pathology network board. My background is as a state registered biomedical scientist in Clinical Chemistry.
During my career across 35+ years in the NHS I have also enjoyed roles as an imaging service manager, and as divisional manager of a clinical support division and a medicine and ED division. My current interests are in all things digital, “externalising pathology”, promoting the principle of “NHS Pathology” and the systems wide “effectiveness” of pathology services.
I still get up in the morning excited at the thought of improving pathology services in the widest sense and across all its many facets. I believe there is a huge and recurrent opportunity for us all to shape the future provision of pathology and to extend the visibility and scope of its benefits to patients and the wider populations.