My biggest concern about Pathology Modernisation is the apparent lack of leadership and management structure to drive the whole process forward.  I am very sceptical that the pathology networks will undergo a process self-organisation to enable the objectives of the planning guide to be achieved, most notably those that relate to standardisation and equity of the pathology service offered.

A similar situation has already occurred in trying to implement Information for Health the white paper. Local implementation boards were set up to identify and prioritise the tasks and produce IT best practice guides. The resources that were passed down from region to meet the targets of IFH were repeatedly sidetracked into balancing the SAFF and bailing out the massive debt the Health Authority had built up. I had first hand experience of this as a member of the East Sussex LIS program board. We were by no means unique in this situation, this was a national problem and has led to many IFH targets slipping substantially backwards.

The DOH solution was to put in a strong management structure to oversee IT modernisation, I have cut and pasted the summary below, the full documents can be viewed at

http://www.doh.gov.uk/ipu/whatnew/deliveringit/deliveringit.htm
Without a similar approach being adopted for Path Modernisation I think the same thing is very likely to happen. 
 

"Leadership and direction for IT
Our first steps will be to improve the leadership and direction given to IT by:

• establishing a Ministerial Taskforce under the chairmanship of Lord Hunt to bring together the national programme with representatives of the NHS, a Treasury Minister, the e-envoy and the Chief Executive of the Office of Government Commerce
• having a DH director, Sir John Pattison, responsible for the programme and reporting to Lord Hunt and Nigel Crisp
• appointing a new national IT programme director, reporting to Sir John, and supported by a new central programme team largely drawn from, and working together with, the Information Policy Unit, NHS Information Authority and NHS Purchasing and Supplies Authority
• requiring strategic health authorities to appoint Chief Information Officers. "



John O'Connor
Consultant Clinical Scientist
Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust

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