ACB Scottish Region, Annual Reports, 2005
Chairman
Our first meeting of the year was the AGM that was held in the beautiful Loch
Lomond Shores in Balloch on 17th March 2004. The John King Award was presented
to Miss Susan Knox from the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, now working
at the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, for her paper entitled “DNA polymorphisms
in the TSMT gene,” which she had presented in Glasgow the previous June.
The John King Award consists of a chess-piece trophy plus a grant of £200
towards attendance at a scientific meeting. It is presented in memory of Dr.
John (Ian) King who was a clinical biochemist in Glasgow Royal Infirmary between
1969 and 1978. It was inaugurated in 1980 for the best presentation by a young
biochemist at a regional meeting. At the AGM Peter Ashby (Regional Tutor)
and Heather Stevenson (Hon. Treasurer) demitted office and were replaced by
Mike Wallace and Frank Finlay respectively, Mike’s place as representative
for greater Glasgow being taken, after a ballot, by Susan Knox. Around the
AGM the scientific meeting consisted of a session on Genotypes and Phenotypes,
plus an interesting series of presentations on diverse topics such as fluid
analyses, manganese, vitamin K, and beta-2 microglobulin.
Our summer meeting was held in Murray Royal Hospital, Perth, on 22nd June.
A series of members’ papers were presented. Those papers that were presented
by trainees were judged for the next John King Award, which will be presented
at this year’s AGM in the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, in March.
Our autumn meeting was held in the Scottish Health Services Centre in the
Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, on 11th November. The morning session
was on Laboratory management, and included presentations on the changes taking
place in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Lanarkshire, plus a presentation from Ian
Barnes. The afternoon scientific meeting could not have contrasted more, being
about tandem mass spectrometry.
The Scottish Region has a very active audit group, chaired by Anne Pollock,
and our scientific meetings always have at least one paper either from this
group or commissioned by it. This group has started to produce guidelines
based on some of these audits, and this work will allow members to “close
the loop” with regard to a number of topics.
The Scottish Regional Committee met on three occasions, prior to the regional
scientific meetings, on each of the above dates. We have a brief business
meeting at the end of the scientific programme so that members can have an
“instant update” (and feed back) on the Committee’s deliberations.
The Region has always been active in training, and is currently preparing
to host the National Training Course in Glasgow in April 2006.
Overall this has been a busy and successful year for the Scottish Region of
the ACB. My thanks are due to the committee members for all their hard work,
in particular Dr. Peter Rae, our secretary.
Dr. Alan S. Hutchison
Chairman, Scottish Region
9th February 2005
Federation of Clinical Scientists
Agenda for Change
The main focus of the FCS over the last 12 months has been getting to grips
with Agenda for Change. The experience of the early Implementers has been
disappointing in that there has been a perceived difference in application
of AfC in the 3 sites where Clinical Scientists are employed. Consequently
very little has been gleaned by the FCS Executive which could be passed on
to members.
Within Scotland, SPRIG has produced a timetable which proposes Clinical Scientist
matching in June and July. There appear to be issues developing already with
Nurses, the first group to be matched, so slippage, as always, is to be expected.
Some Boards are asking for job descriptions already and there is now limited
experience in how these should be prepared. There are a variety of guidelines
on how Job Descriptions should be written and these can be found on the SPRIG
and FCS websites. The most important consideration is that your job description
must be comprehensive, but easily interpretable to a member of the matching
panel who has no idea about laboratories.
Within the WoS a group has been set up under Alan Rumley to look at best practice
and information gleaned from this will be shared.
Members Issues
There have been no significant member’s issues in the last year. Argyll
and Clyde have been looking for voluntary redundancies and there are issues
around natural wastage as the Glasgow laboratory review progresses.
Within Lothian, there has been a welcome pause for reflection in the laboratory
review
Pensions
To our surprise, there is a parallel pensions review within Scotland. The
FCS will represent individual member’s views if they are made known.
This would be best done by direct contact with the Secretary (secretary.fcs@acb.org.uk)
Succession Arrangements
I am pleased to report that Jacqueline McGuire has agreed to take on the role
of Regional Representative from the 2006 AGM. Jacqui will shadow me for the
next 12 months.
Richard Spooner
February 05
Treasurer’s Report
STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS 2004.
Credit
Debit
Carried forward from 2003
£ 7,692.31
2003 debits carried over
£ 235.00
COMMITTEE EXPENSES
£ 463.51
SPEAKERS' EXPENSES
£ -
MEETING FACILITIES/CATERING
£ 2,577.11
SPONSORSHIP
£ 2,300.00
JOHN KING AWARD
£ 200.00
EURO MED LAB BURSARY
£ 500.00
INTEREST
£ 88.11
MAIL CHARGES
£ -
CAPITATION
£ 2,102.00
Carried forward to 2005
£ 8,206.80
£ 12,182.42
£ 12,182.42
Uncleared debits
£ 16.80
(Honorary Treasurer)
I certify that the above balance is in accordance with the records, receipts
and bank statements supplied to me.
Signed ................................………….. Date
...................
Frank Finlay
Treasurer
Audit Report
Introduction
Once again the Scottish Audit Group has had a busy year. The audit slot, which
was introduced at each regional meeting, has allowed dissemination and useful
discussion of information regarding audit. Topics covered this year have included
discussion of proposed standards for analysis of fluids, and presentation
of the results of the survey of changes in microalbumin workload. The June
meeting also included a number of other audit presentations by individual
members, confirming that the Region is generally very active in audit.
A number of posters on work done by members of the Scottish Audit Group were
submitted to Focus.
The group were delighted to welcome Sharon Russell and Gillian Gray as new
members.
Scottish Audits
Anne Pollock sent out a copy of the poster presented at Focus on the changes
in microalbumin workload in Scottish laboratories, to heads of departments
and audit contacts.
Karen Smith presented the results of the analysis of fluids survey at last
year’s AGM and led a discussion on the proposed standards at the November
meeting. These standards have now been finalised and sent out. The Scottish
Audit Group is very grateful to Michael Murphy for his help.
Sharon Russell has carried out a survey of the interpretation of progesterone
concentrations and the results are currently being analysed.
Jim Allison has prepared a questionnaire on how laboratories deal with samples
that contain interfering substances. This has been distributed.
Christina Gray has carried out a survey of interpretation of PSA concentrations.
It is hoped this will inform a discussion on how laboratories comment on PSA
results.
Jacqueline McGuire has prepared a questionnaire to re-audit against the electrophoresis
guidelines, which were sent out previously. This will be distributed soon.
Bill Simpson distributed a survey of how laboratories measure creatinine in
samples containing high concentrations of bilirubin.
Proposed audits/surveys
Survey of glycated haemoglobin methods and organisation of service
First-line testing in suspected Cushing’s syndrome – will include
re-audit of original West of Scotland Audit
National Audit
The National Audit Group has met twice in the last year.
Request card audit: The request card audit is being written up. The survey
suggested that electronic request cards improved the quality of information
supplied and also in some cases improved the supply of clinical information.
Otherwise the patient demographic information was generally of good quality,
mainly due to the increasing use of computer-generated sticky labels but provision
of clinical information was poor both in terms of legibility and provision.
Date and time of sample was also a problem although again this was helped
to some extent by the use of sticky labels.
The GI testing audit is completed and a report will be presented soon.
The results of the lipid audit were presented at Focus and also to the West
Midlands Audit meeting
It has been agreed that a detailed audit of the implementation of the NICE
pre-operative guidelines could be acceptable as the written part of part 2
of the MRCPath
The guidelines for bilirubin analysis have been commented on and are with
David Isherwood. There are some problems with the perceived practicality of
the guidelines.
Some concerns had been expressed by some neurosurgical colleagues that the
CSF xanthochromia guidelines do not cover every eventuality such as oxyhaemoglobin
values as well as correction factors used for bilirubin. Robert Beetham has
explained the difficulties in being prescriptive about these. A further questionnaire
has been distributed to re-audit against the guidelines.
Robert Beetham gave a presentation of the results of the discretionary requesting
of electrophoresis survey. He is currently producing an article but at the
moment could not make firm recommendations. He was intending to feed back
to people who participated.
There continues to be discussion about the relationship between the ACB national
Audit Group and structures proposed by the Royal College of Pathologists.
There is a strong feeling that it is important to maintain the roots of the
group within the ACB.
It has also been suggested that the ACB National Committee should report directly
to the Scientific Committee or to Council. Keith Griffiths will raise this
for discussion.
There has been slow progress on the creation of an audit website. Many of
the regional websites have audit sections.
The Audit Group would like to thank all those who have responded to the questionnaires
that we send out. If there is an area that you are interested in auditing
on a Scottish-wide basis please contact me so that the group can provide any
help possible.
Anne Pollock
March 2005
Trainees
Trainees’ Committee meetings were held in April and Sept 2004.
Relevant points arising from discussion:
MRCPath examinations
? MRCPath exam regulations have recently been updated. The 3 year (for part
1) and 8 year (for part 2) rules for sitting the exam have been abolished.
Applicants can sit the exams as soon as they get permission from their supervisor.
Paediatric biochemistry.
? The results of the paediatric biochemistry training survey were shown as
a poster at FOCUS 2004. Information has been sent to the ACB education committee,
regional tutors and paediatric metabolic network.
Trainees’ website
? An email based trainees’ mailbase is now up and running. Trainees
can join the list via the link on the Trainees’ website, www.acb.org.uk/training.
? Edited minutes of all TC meeting are now available on line.
Other issues
? The Grade A handbook is currently being updated.
? Grade B’s are being encouraged to take part in RITA reviews.
? On the advice of Mike Hallworth, the TC chairman has been in contact with
the chairman of the Society of Young Clinical Laboratorians (SYCL) in America.
This represents clinical scientists under the age of 40. Visit www.aacc.org/sycl
for more information. The TC will keep in touch as required.
? Rachael Edwards has been elected as the new TC secretary.
? Stephanie Barber (West Midlands) has been elected as the new TC chairman.
? Information packs for new trainee representatives are being put together.
Gillian Gray
WoS Representative
Regional Tutor
The Grade A Training Scheme continues to work well and the Trainees are making
good progress. The help and support provided by a wide variety of staff in
many laboratories in Scotland is gratefully acknowledged.
The Trainees
The Trainees currently in post are:
First Year Ms Louise Brown, Ninewells Hopsital Dundee
[Supervisor – Dr Callum Fraser]
Dr Jane McNeilly. Aberdeen Royal Infirmary
[Supervisor – Dr A Dickie(now retired)]
Second year Ms Sarah Jarvis, Glasgow Royal Infirmary
[Supervisor – Dr E Farish]
Ms Eleanor Oakes, Stobhill General Hospital
[Supervisor – Dr E Farish]
Mr Neil Squires, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
[Supervisor – Dr JP Ashby]
Third Year Dr Leigh Campbell, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
[Supervisor – Dr PWH Rae]
Ms Louise Todd, Wishaw General Hospital
[Supervisor – Mr EJ Carlyle]
Fourth Year Dr Sharon Jenner (Grade B Higher Specialist Trainee) Ninewells
Hospital and Medical School, Dundee
[Supervisor – Dr CG Fraser]
Over the past year Dr Leigh Cambell and Ms Louise Todd successfully completed
the MSc in Clinical Biochemistry with Molecular Biology at the University
of Surrey. Ms Susan Knox, Dr Elaine Davidson and Dr Sharon Jenner have now
succesfully completed the ACB Grade A training Scheme. Dr Elaine Davidson
has successfully obtained a Grade B post in Aberdeen and Ms Susan Knox a similar
post in Glasgow.
There are current concerns regarding the course content of the University
of Surrey MSc and Dr C Fraser and Dr AM Wallace are liassing closely with
the University to move this forward. There is also a concern about the quality
of the accommodation at Surrey that has been addressed.
Recruitment
NSD are funding three new Trainees in 2005 and it is proposed that they will
be based at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Wishaw General Hopsital, Fife Area
Laboratory, Kircaldy. These posts have been advertised recently in the New
Scientist and the ACB Newsheet the closing date for applicants is the 18th
of March and interviews are to take place shortly. We are grateful to Dr Philip
Wenham for taking on this new commitment in the Kircaldy Laboratory.
Administration
Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust continues to hold the contract with
NSD for the Scottish Training Scheme for Grade A Clinical Biochemists and
this arrangement works very well. Dr Callum Fraser is reponsible for the co-ordination
and local administration of the scheme in Dundee and the Regional Tutor is
reponsible for professional matters. The annual review of the Training Scheme
is to take place in June.
All laboratories involved with training have to be recognised as such by the
Association of Clinical Biochemists. Efforts are currently being undertaken
to ensure that all training sites in Scotland are fully accredited by the
ACB.
Mike Wallace
Regional Tutor