Last year, a top London foundation trust entered into a partnership with Serco to provide an innovative and world-leading pathology service that promises to be the model for others to follow. Almost 18 months on, here is the view from Lambeth Palace Road.
With current fiscal pressures and long-term drives for a more efficient health service, change continues across the whole NHS, not least in pathology. While the biomedical science community looks to adapt further, consolidation and outsourcing within the pathology sector is already happening across the UK. When word spread in 2009 that a joint venture between the private and public sectors was being formed, the spectre of a ‘takeover’ quickly loomed large. Yet GSTS Pathology, the organisation born of a 50:50 partnership between Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and the international service provider Serco, is proving to be anything but.
The GSTS approach is collaborative, with the management team leading on the logistical and training improvements, allowing scientists and specialists to remain free to do the job for which they trained, while empowering them to make innovative progress. This approach is already making major advances in the levels of service; for example, cervical screening times have been halved – they are now under fourteen days – and average phlebotomy waiting time has reduced from 11 minutes to nine minutes. Ultimately, GSTS aims to transform the way pathology services are delivered, providing an end-to-end service that draws on ground-breaking processes and technology to improve the patient experience.
Although it is run as a business, GSTS is not a ‘stack them high and sell them cheap’ model. The executive team leading the joint venture is focused on innovation and value. Work at GSTS remains clinically-led, with biomedical scientists recognised as crucial contributors to the future growth and development of the organisation. Dr Kevin Cox, GSTS managing director, says: “There is a person behind every test and a patient behind every result – this remains the focus of the GSTS service ethos. We endeavour to ensure that all staff feel part of the wider GSTS business. We are here to provide the very best service and to develop teams of world-leading scientists, while making the efficiency savings envisioned by Lord Carter’s review of pathology a reality.” 1
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