Our programmes

Project team

• Angela Green — Pathology General manager, MTW and MES Project Steering Group Chair
• Chris Stiff — MES Project Director
• Bob Murray — Associate Director of Procurement, MTW and MES Procurement Lead
• Katie Brooker — Programme Support Officer
• Ada Foreman —  Programme Finance Lead

Project brief/summary

There are multiple disparate contracts in place to provide instrumentation, equipment and consumables across the three pathology services delivered from seven laboratories. This historic arrangement stems from the three services operating independently. As the services work more closely, within the network arrangement, changes are required to ensure that we standardise the way we work and the equipment we use, for the benefit of both patients and staff alike and to ensure the sustainability of the service, to the highest quality.

The project will include very significant procurement and implementation phases. As such the implementation is unlikely to commence until April 2025 and be completed until October 2028, based on the current high-level plan.

Objectives

To replace the existing disparate MES contracts as they expire, with a single overarching contract arrangement with one Primary MES Provider, which will sub-contract elements as required to other specialist pathology equipment suppliers. 

Benefits (value, goals)

The single contract approach will enable standardisation of equipment and methodologies across the seven laboratory sites. This will in-turn enable patients and service users to enjoy an equitable pathology diagnostics service throughout Kent and Medway. Results for tests performed anywhere in Kent and Medway will be comparable, making sure patients' test data can be easily interpreted and used with confidence by any clinician, irrespective of their location.

As the equipment will be standardised across the Kent and Medway Pathology Network (KMPN), trained staff will be able to work at any relevant site, enabling KMPN to become more agile in its approach to resourcing, as the network matures, and potentially enabling staff to change their base as they may wish.

Laboratory sites will benefit from the ability to share consumables when required and send specimens between sites, sure in the knowledge that they will be tested using identical equipment and methodologies to generate the result.

Timelines

The project was initiated in July 2018 and the Outline Business Case (OBC) was approved by the Trust Boards in Summer 2020. NHS England approved the OBC in September 2022, following delays caused by Covid.

The procurement phase was launched in March 2023 and is expected to conclude in July 2024.

A Full Business Case (FBC) will then be produced, which is expected to be approved by all relevant governance bodies (K&M and NHSE) by March 2025, enabling the contract to be signed and the implementation to begin.

The first go-live with the new equipment is planned for circa October 2025 and the final go-live should be completed by September 2028.

Successes to date

• the MES OBC has been fully approved
• initial procurement phase for blood sciences is underway and is considered as an exemplary approach by NHS England.

Project team

• Amanda Price — Workforce Project Director
• Manpreet Bhogal — Healthcare Science Practice Educator Fellow
• Caroline Fowles — Education and Training Coordinator
• Cheryl Holder, Ellie Morrison and Oludolapu Ogunleye — HR business partners (half a day a week)

Project brief/summary

To develop and implement the network workforce, education and network development strategy in order to help develop a sustainable pathology workforce and make the network a great place to work.

Objective

Develop and support a diverse and sustainable workforce to meet current and future pathology service demands.

Key workforce focus areas:

• workforce design
• harmonisation and standardisation
• workforce planning
• equality, diversity and inclusion.

Key education and training focus areas 

• schools, colleges and careers engagement
• support staff career pathways
• biomedical scientist training pathways
• advanced scientist training
• medical training
• continual professional development (CPD)
• career development support
• education and training infrastructure.

Key recruitment and retention focus areas:

• diversity in recruitment
• joint network recruitment.

Benefits

• make sure the right staff with the right skills in the right place in the right numbers at the right time.
• attract the best from our local area and beyond.
• enable colleagues to grow their careers in the network.
• following our network values ensures a great place to work and an excellent pathology service for our patients and service users.

Timelines

We are in year two of a three year strategy.  Year two objectives refreshed from network vision and national, regional and local developments.

Year three objectives will align with the new clinical strategy.

Successes to date

• workforce schedule agreed in collaboration agreement enabling harmonisation and standardisation
• collaborative approach to job descriptions and career progression
• CPD programme for clinical/scientist and leadership/personal development
• network mentoring programme
• expedited registration portfolio and e-learning modules
• network collaborative workspace on FutureNHS.

Project team

• Agata Gawlik — Senior Project Manager
• Maria Asperilla — Business Change Manager
• Arnold Kagombe — Project Manager
• Nico Latsky — Technical Consultant
• Emma Smith — Project Support 

Project brief and summary

Delivery of a consolidated OrderComms system across Kent and Medway, providing a consistent and efficient approach for requesting pathology and radiology tests, with wider access to patient results, for all appropriate users.

Objectives

• to improve the end user and service provider service, and ultimately the patient experience
• support the ability to meet national cancer pathway targets for radiology and pathology
• support consistency in approach across the whole system, providing collaborative opportunities across trust boundaries. 

Benefits 

• significant reduction in printing, distribution and filing of paper results (cash-releasing benefit)
• faster overall turnaround from request to results (qualitative benefit)
• significant patient safety risk reduction caused by data quality improvements (cash-releasing benefit).
• Better ability to manage demand and reduce inappropriate requesting (cash-releasing benefit)
• good information sharing possibilities (qualitative benefit)
• possibility of implementing test sets based on presenting clinical conditions (qualitative benefit)
• improved metrics on requesting patterns and practices (qualitative benefit)
• better specimen labelling leading to less rejections and clinical errors (qualitative benefit)
• better order tracking capability (qualitative benefit)
• results pushed to requestors / team workflow (qualitative benefit)
• Better auditing opportunities for acting on results (qualitative benefit)
• Supports drive to 'paperless by 2020' and supports electronic document management project (qualitative benefit)
• Provides opportunities for additional services such as cardiology, endoscopy etc (qualitative benefit)
• GPs and clinicians, in both acute and community settings, will have wider access to test results for their registered patients, not just for those requested by them (qualitative benefit)
• improved planning of specimen collection and transport cash-releasing benefit
• reduction in mislabelled or mishandled specimens resulting in fewer repeat investigations.

Timelines

• Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust (DGT) radiology OrderComms go-live - Jan 2024. Other trusts to be confirmed
• Pathology OrderComms - aligned to pathology laboratory information management system (LIMS go-live).

Successes to date

• significant capital funding, circa £3million, sourced from NHSE's Diagnostics Digital Capability Programme. 
• business case/LOA was approved through ICB, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT) and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells (MTW) trusts December 2022
• procurement process completed March 2022.
• ICE OrderComms solution procured March 2022.

Project team

Steve Hives - Senior Project Manager 
Ann-Marie Robinson - Business Analyst
Emma Smith - Project Support 

Project brief/summary

The project will deliver a modern digital pathology solution that will transform the review, analysis and reporting processes of all Histopathology services provided by KMPN.

Objectives

• Bring KMPN histopathology services in line with those offered nationally, many of which are either already on the Digital Pathology journey, or about to start.
• Provide a quality, safe, effective, sustainable, and timely histopathology service for patients.
• Improve recruitment and retention of current and future workforce to address the workforce shortage of Consultant Histopathologists within the Kent & Medway Pathology Network by making it a desirable place to work.
• Contribute to trust cancer pathway performance as workload and complexity of cases continue to grow, in order to provide the optimum result for the patient in a timely manner.
• Future proofing: Provide a foundation for the introduction and exploitation of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies in the future to further increase efficiencies and resilience.
• Facilitate collaboration both within and outside of the network, improving patient pathway experience and collegiate working across the network.