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Despite a workload that has increased by nearly 50 per cent since the Covid pandemic, Peterborough’s cellular pathology team has continued to make huge strides in reducing patient referral to treatment times.

The team has recently been honoured with a coveted award at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust’s annual Outstanding Achievement awards, which recognises their efforts in this specialist field.

Those working in the department at Peterborough City Hospital were presented with Outstanding Team of the Year award during the ceremony at Peterborough Cathedral.

David Bailey is Consultant in Cellular Pathology at the Trust & Divisional Director for Medicine.

He explained: “Cellular pathology is one of those specialities that no one knows very much about. It essentially deals with making a diagnosis from tissue samples. It is often said that 70 per cent of all clinical diagnoses are made based on pathology, but every single cancer diagnosis come from a cellular pathology laboratory.”

The team was nominated for the award by Trust Pathology Services Manager, Matt Smith. He said: “The department has been put under increased pressure – mostly due to the drive to reduce waiting lists. The team has embraced and risen to the challenge to become a key enabler to allow the clinical pathway to flow.”

Matt added: “Over the past 18 months, the Cellular Pathology team has risen to the challenge of supporting clinical services across the organisation to enable them to deliver improved cancer and patient Referral to Treatment (RTT) waiting times.

Throughout this time, the team has embraced further innovation, including Digital Pathology (which allows for efficiencies in reporting) and has rapidly evaluated and implemented new technology such as AI into routine use for prostate and breast cancer reporting, which in itself has supported a significant reduction in biopsy reporting times. “

Matt said: “Despite these challenges, the team has not shied away from reflecting on its performance and looking at new ways to improve histopathology turnaround times. Embracing this mindset has delivered a significant improvement in 10-day turn around performance in cancer diagnostics, with the service moving from the bottom quartile nationally in April 2024 to just shy of the upper quartile by January 2025.”

Cellular pathology is the study of disease in organs, tissues and cells. Histopathology and cytopathology are key diagnostic tests in the initial detection and diagnosis of cancer and other diseases supported by modern molecular techniques.