New NHS, but with a continued focus on quality and patient safety

Today is a landmark for our many customers and friends working across the NHS. The much debated health reforms have arrived, and the way healthcare is delivered in England today is fundamentally different to the way it was yesterday.

For a number of healthcare professionals and patients accessing services, the changes may not be obvious on the surface. Many people are working in the same buildings, but maybe with a different sign over the door.

However, the structure of the NHS has changed beyond recognition. In some ways it will intensify the NHS modernisation agenda that we have been supporting for a number of years. We are confident that the drive for greater quality and improved patient safety in pathology will continue, and we look forward to helping to position logistics at the heart of the drive for innovation and better use of technology.

This issue was highlighted at a debate we sponsored earlier this year, which asked the question, can automation in pathology can ever become a reality? The debate chair, Health Service Journal editor Alastair McClellan, said in his view, pathology is at the vanguard for how modernisation will impact support organisations in and around the NHS.

This has certainly been our experience. The introduction of PathTrak, our secure GPS track and trace system for patient specimen collection and delivery management, has done more than improve pathology logistics. The planning and processes needed to deliver quality can often highlight inefficiency and potential problems in the wider clinical support organisation.

For example, one Trust we support discovered that nearly one quarter of samples from theatre were being delayed on route to the pathology courier, but nobody knew where. PathTrak is now being used to help identify the source of the delays, and will contribute to a solution being put in place.

We are very conscious that this is an extremely unsettling time for people in the NHS. At CitySprint Healthcare, we will be increasing our efforts to ensure we are aligned to support the new structures. The drive for focused, efficient and safer pathology logistics continues.

Andy Turner
CitySprint Healthcare Director
07989 857 816