1. National Pathology Programme Board (NPPB) The NPPB meets next on 30th March 2011 and the other All Wales groups will be meeting during the period February / March as follows: 4th February POCT Coordinators’ Group 11th March HTA Designated Individuals Group 15th March Quality Managers’ Group 16th March Laboratory Managers’ Group 30th March National Pathology Programme Board Colleagues from all Health Boards and national services are welcome to participate in programme activities and attend the various meetings, workshops and training events which take place regularly. Your representatives on the NPPB and other All Wales groups, including those involved in discipline standardisation for the LIMS, will provide feedback at your local department meetings. Please get in touch if you have any queries. The level of service engagement in National Pathology Programme activities is excellent with opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and save duplicating effort being one of the major benefits participants derive from their involvement. Laboratory Information Management System Configuration of the All Wales LIMS is currently underway with NWIS, Intersystems and Pathology colleagues working in partnership. Please look out for and make every effort to attend the workshops which will be held to demonstrate and obtain feedback on the build at key points. Further information on the LIMS and related IT projects is available on the NWIS website www.wales.nhs.uk/nwis The LIMS Implementation Board meets next on Thursday 3rd February. LIMS implementation project leads from All Health Boards and national services form the core membership of the LIMS Implementation Board and will provide feedback at your local Pathology service meetings. The flexible nature of the new LIMS provides exciting opportunities to integrate services and do things in new ways. Please take every opportunity to participate in your local LIMS readiness project and help shape the future service in your organisation. All Wales Training Events In order to reduce duplication of effort and maximise access to local expertise within Pathology departments in Wales, a number of All Wales training events are being planned to take place during 2011. Please speak to your service manager if you would like to attend any of the training events. Dates secured so far are as follows: 18th March Anatomical Pathology Technician training day 25th March Adult Post Mortem Consent training 5th April APT training day (repeat of 18/03) Training in carrying out audit for those with responsibility for Quality Management within their organisation is also being arranged. Details of this will be circulated via the Quality Managers’ Group. All Wales User Survey An All Wales survey of internal secondary care users of Pathology services is currently underway. The questionnaire has been developed by the Pathology Quality Managers’ Group and is available online at  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RN3Q9FM. The link has been distributed through Quality Managers. Please encourage colleagues who request tests to complete the survey as User Satisfaction is a vital indicator of service quality and survey results will be valuable to you and your colleagues both to inform future service planning and delivery and to help identify where there are communication and education needs amongst your service users. Survey responses will enable an index of satisfaction to be calculated for individual sites, Health Boards and on an All Wales level. “Do Once and Share” Please visit www.nliah.com/portal to access the Pathology Community website, where you’ll find Resources, case studies and other material contributed by colleagues to reduce duplication of effort and help stimulate ideas for further sharing, learning and collaboration. Margie Fielden, Pathology Programme Manager, 02920 207615 or margie.fielden@wales.nhs.uk Pathology Programme NewsNo. 201st February 2011