To celebrate Biomedical Science Day 2023 I wanted to do this blog to share the ongoing work of the Greater Manchester (GM) Pathology Network around workforce.
The pathology workforce play a key role in the diagnosis and treatment of patients in the NHS; over 85% of all diagnoses made in the NHS are directly influenced by the results produced by laboratories. A key deliverable for the GM Pathology Network is our Pathology workforce strategy.
This strategic vision has been agreed by all GM partner trusts to:
- attract and retain talent in the network, to decrease vacancy and turnover rates.
- create clear development opportunities for all Pathology staff to maximise potential and create equality in training across the network.
- better understand the workforce needs in Pathology and create a workforce sustainable for the future.
The GM Pathology Network has an established workforce group which meet monthly to work together to address some of our workforce challenges. One of the biggest long standing challenges for the GM pathology workforce has been lack of funding available for staff development. We have seen significant increase in funding to support the upskilling of support staff to become Biomedical Scientists, funding for CPD and short courses for registered staff and funding to support the increase of apprenticeships across the Network. We have also introduced a network wide solution to assign verifiers and examiners for IBMS registration and specialist portfolios to reduce the turnaround time for verifications to occur. Biomedical Scientists across the network have also benefitted from the national specialist portfolio webinar series through the NHS Futures page, which has supported those staff doing their specialist portfolio. The network team have also recently recruited a new Pathology Practice Education Facilitator to support some of the key activities in the workforce strategy.
For 2023/24 we have some key projects that we are working towards:
- increasing placement opportunities for Biomedical Scientists
- exploring alternative recruitment methods for difficult to recruit to posts
- continued increase in funding to support staff development
- developing collaborative platform for sharing of CPD and Lunchtime talks
- continue to share examples of good practice around workforce initiatives across the network
- explore solutions for expansion of advanced roles in Histopathology
- introduce GM Network organised workshops with focus on training and development
To all our Biomedical Scientists and wider Pathology workforce I wish you a Happy Biomedical Science Day 2023.