OUTSOURCING
The shape of things to come?
It is now almost certain that Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust is to be managed by a private sector organisation. Although this has been described as privatisation through the back door, the staff involved seem confident that the trust wil continue to be run in the same way as every other NHS facility, reports Richard Mackillican
prevent people from acquiring it in the first place? How do we stop it spreading?
T
here is a common misconception that microbiologists are
simply laboratory operatives, somehow disconnected from the rest of the health service and continuously churning out test results.
This is an image that the British Infection Society/Association of Medical Microbiologists (BIS/ AMM) is keen to change.
“People often perceive
microbiologists to be very much laboratory based, whereas we are actually linked in to providing infection services as part of a holistic process, with both our clinical colleagues in general and hospital practice, and those in other infection specialties, such as infectious diseases, health protection and infection control. We are connected to a wide range of clinical work, as well as offering diagnostic services,” says Dr Stockley, who
40 nhe
is also a consultant medical microbiologist at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.
“I think people often see pathology and microbiology as a place where results are churned out in order for doctors to take action with them, whereas as medical microbiologists we ourselves are providing a patient centred clinical service which helps to support our clinical colleagues in the management of patients with infection, throughout both primary and acute care.”
Clinical microbiologists also have a much wider remit around issues such as public health.
“When you are talking about infection, you are not just thinking about what is making that particular patient ill at this particular point in time. You are thinking about where has this infection come from? Could you
“Obviously the prevention of healthcare acquired infections does take up a lot of our time and interest but there is also a lot to do with regards to wider public health issues around infection. This covers a broad spread of issues including proactive surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases and the monitoring of antibiotic resistance, using the laboratory as our tool. It is our diagnostic workhorse and we utilise the information it provides to enable us to advise on the public health agenda as well managing individual patients. This is something which microbiologists hold very dear, but perhaps is not always appreciated.”
That apparent lack of appreciation is about to be compounded by the fact that budgets which are already hard stretched are about to be cut back further, due to the need for efficiencies to be made.
“The issue of funding is of great concern to us. Having worked in the NHS one does become used to managing budgets
Sep/Oct 10
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92