Capacity doubled in cancer biopsy process at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital

Cancer biopsies at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital will now be quicker, easier for staff, and enable patient treatment to start sooner - thanks to a new piece of equipment that doubles the capacity of part of the process.

A new £42,000 Grossing Station has been installed in the pathology centre, funded by Lingen Davies Cancer Fund. 

Dr Jeremy Johnson MBE, a member of Lingen Davies’ Grants committee, said they are delighted to be able to fund this as the committee knew it was a vital piece of machinery as soon as they saw the grant application.

He said: “I was so pleased when we saw this application because I think pathology is one of the most important areas when it comes to cancer treatment at the hospital.

“If this funding helps staff deliver results quicker and speeds up the process, it can only be a good thing - and something we didn’t hesitate to decide to put this charity money towards.

“The aim of Lingen Davies is to support people affected by cancer and this machine does just that. We consider our grants process to be incredibly important and we are always keen to hear from anyone - in the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust or the wider community - who has an idea for something to benefit cancer patients.”

Any biopsies or samples that need to be diagnosed go through the cutting room at the pathology centre in the hospital where they are categorised and analysed. Once they have been checked, one of the 12 consultant pathologists on the unit follow up with patients and put treatment plans in place.

Following this donation, a former store cupboard has now become the Lingen Davies Cancer Diagnostic Centre.

Debbie Wareing, Operational Manager of the Cellular Pathology Department, said: “It will give us more capacity, one patient could have up to 17 different cuts and this will enable us to be more efficient - including at weekends when we have an increasing workload.

“The new grossing station means we can process more samples and help more people, it will mean we can get more specimens through and it will shorten the length of time specimens are here - as well as enable us to use one station to train younger staff and upskill existing members of the team.”

Currently urgent checks take four days between the pathology team receiving a sample to it being booked in and up to 16 days for routine patient samples, but the team aim to process them within seven to ten days.

Dr Angus McGregor, Clinical Director for Pathology, Pathologist and Medical Director for Clinical Support Services, said: “This is increasing our capacity and capabilities to deliver high quality cancer path services.

“We have new challenging turnaround targets so this will help with that. We’re doing really well with them already, but we want to be even better and this will go a long way to helping with that.”

Nigel Lee, the Executive Director of People Strategy, added: “Thank you so much to our colleagues at Lingen Davies we have another example of a really significant investment in equipment supporting patients.

“As you know our pathology services are hugely busy and this equipment will support that demand, providing assessment back to the relevant teams for their patients which will enable them to crack on with treatment plans.

“It’s a fantastic facility for our staff to use.”

The new grossing station is made by Shrewsbury-based Solmedia and Naomi Atkin, CEO of Lingen Davies Cancer Fund, said it was an honour to make this difference.

She said: “Lingen Davies is proud to be able to supply this grossing machine to the pathology unit and hear about the difference it will make. It is something our team is very proud of and will make a real difference to cancer patients in our community.”