As many of you will know, earlier this year we sadly lost a dear colleague, Joe Matthew, who was Head of School for Pathology in the South West Peninsula. Over the last couple of months I have had a number of discussions about how we can best proceed with the management of training in the Pathology specialties. Those initial discussions took place at the last School Board for Pathology in the Peninsula and I sought the views of the TPD’s who were present at that meeting. I have also had discussions with Dr Andrew Day, as Head of School for Pathology in Severn.
While we have two clearly defined training programmes for Histopathology, there is already considerable overlap for Chemical Pathology and Medical Microbiology through the current Training Programme Director arrangements. Given the relative size of both schools, which are relatively small by comparison with many of the other specialties, I have taken the decision after considerable thought and discussion to have a single School of Pathology across Health Education South West and I have asked Dr Andrew Day to extend his responsibilities accordingly. I am sure you will all wish to join me in thanking Andrew for taking on that extended role and wish him well in the future.
However, I want to make it very clear that my intention is not to make any immediate changes to the two programmes that currently exist in Histopathology, with the two Training Programme Directors responsible for Severn and South West Peninsula. I have asked Andrew to review the best working arrangements for Chemical Pathology and Medical Microbiology, the latter of course is going through a national restructuring as we introduce Combined Infection Training and I believe that is another good reason for forming a single school, so we can move forward with that exciting programme under united leadership.