OPINION


Workforce sustainability and the future of pathology


Marlen Suller, Managing Director for Clinical Diagnostics, Magentus


Pathology services underpin everything from cancer diagnosis and screening to routine monitoring and personalised treatment. Across the diagnostic laboratory, services are under growing pressure to deliver faster, more complex testing, while maintaining the quality and consistency that patients and clinicians rely on. Cellular pathology, and


histopathology in particular, is where this pressure is most visible. In 2025, just 54.8% of histopathology tests in England were reported within 10 days, around half the turnaround most NHS pathology services target. Histopathology is the gateway to cancer diagnosis, determining whether cancer is present, what type it is, and how it should be treated. When reporting runs this far behind targets, it can contribute to delayed treatment decisions, missed cancer targets, increased anxiety for patients and families, and additional pressure on clinical teams working with incomplete information.


Growing pressure GPs in England request around two billion laboratory diagnostic tests a year, a figure that covers primary care alone, before hospital and specialist volumes are counted. The Royal College of Pathologists


(RCPath) reports screening programmes are pushing volumes up and precision medicine is pushing complexity up. A single cancer case that once required a limited number of diagnostic steps may now involve cellular pathology, molecular profiling, genetic analysis and eligibility checks for targeted therapies. This all adds up to a structural shift in what the profession is being asked to do. Against this backdrop, workforce


growth has been limited. Data from NHS England shows that over the past decade, overall diagnostic laboratory workforce numbers have increased by less than 5%, while the wider NHS workforce has grown by more than 15% over the same period. This gap maters because it shows capacity is not expanding in line with the broader system, or with the


demand being placed upon it. Crucially, this limited growth is happening alongside structural workforce pressures. In its 2025 Workforce Census, RCPath reports that 47% of consultant pathologists are aged 50 or over, raising concerns about a potential retirement ‘cliff edge’ within the next decade. In addition, 23% plan to retire earlier than expected, reflecting the cumulative impact of workload and system pressures.


Beyond a headcount challenge It is understandable that recruitment is often the first response. However, even with significantly more trainees, the traditional model of siloed laboratories, fragmented IT, and heavy administrative load will struggle to absorb the building demand. Diagnostic laboratory services are still largely organised around structures designed for a different era. Pathologists and laboratory teams lose


time to tasks that systems should handle: chasing specimen data, reconciling results across sites, duplicating requests because one laboratory cannot see what another has already done. These are workflow problems, not workforce problems. But left unaddressed, they make the workforce problem worse.


A different approach to scaling diagnostics Addressing these challenges requires a broader systems approach. The focus must shift from workforce expansion alone to enabling the workforce to operate more effectively. This includes: streamlining diagnostic


pathways end-to-end; improving interoperability between systems and organisations; reducing manual and administrative processes; and enabling beter prioritisation of clinical work. In the Cheshire and Merseyside


Pathology Network, serving 2.7 million people across five NHS Trusts, Magentus is implementing a single laboratory information management system across laboratories that previously operated in isolation. The work standardises end-to- end workflows, creates a single source of truth for pathology data, and cuts the administrative tasks that eat into clinical time: duplicate requests, manual reconciliation, cross-site coordination. Pathways are being redesigned around


About Marlen Suller Marlen Suller is Managing Director for Clinical Diagnostics (EMEA) at Magentus. Marlen brings deep international healthcare leadership experience to Magentus and a strong record of transforming diagnostics and pathology. Most recently, Marlen led the global In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) Software division at Dedalus. There, Marlen consolidated fragmented portfolios and reorganised the global workforce to improve collaboration and efficiency, enabling rapid business transformation. www.magentus.com


flexible staffing, shared worklists and network-wide visibility of results. A pathologist in one Trust can see and act on work from another. The network becomes more resilient, without every site needing to staff for peak demand alone. In practical terms, it means laboratory professionals and pathologists spend less of their day navigating between systems and more of it doing the diagnostic work that requires clinical expertise. National policy rightly sets ambitious


expectations for diagnostics, including earlier diagnosis, personalised treatment, and more community based care. These ambitions, however, place increasing pressure on a workforce that is already operating close to capacity. Every one of these ambitions increases demand on a service already reporting at barely half the expected pace. If these goals are real, workforce


sustainability in diagnostics has to be a strategic priority. That means investing in how pathology services are organised, connected and supported, not just in training more pathologists. The improvements that mater are


specific and measurable: fewer duplicate requests, faster turnaround, less time lost to administration, more time on the work that requires clinical judgement. These are operational changes that can be made now, in the services we already have. And they are preconditions for the broader shift the health system is trying to make toward earlier intervention, prevention, and care that is organised around patients rather than institutions. The future of diagnostics will not


be determined by technology alone. It will depend on whether the system can build a workforce that is sustainable, supported and enabled to thrive. Diagnostics is not just about the test. It is about the end-to-end pathway – and the people who make it possible.


PPi June 2026 WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM 5


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