Featuring Beckman Coulter Diagnostics on the front cover, the June issue of Pathology in Practice is now available to read online.
The June issue of PiP has now been published and is available to read online.
From the Editor: Broken / fixed?
So, farewell then Wes Streeting. The Secretary of State for Health whose first move was the bold declaration that the NHS was ‘broken’, has now left office just under two years later. Opinions expressed publicly about his overall effect on the NHS could be charitably described as ‘divided’; but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks he’s actually fixed it.
Certainly much has changed. A certain irony was that the Health Bill – which among other things moves to formally abolish NHS England, moving its functions to the Department of Health and Social Care – was put before Parliament on the same day that Streeting published his resignation letter. While the former waits for his next move, James Murray is the new head of the department, moving behind a desk with an overflowing in tray. Widely seen as a Starmer loyalist, Murray is not expected to rock the boat and many hope that this means the changes already put in place will come to fruition. Much has been put in place already, grouping trusts together and making moves for local areas to have more influence over healthcare spending in their area.
With ‘only’ three years until the next election, progress in the health service is key to this government’s hopes of getting a second term; and the Ten-Year Plan will be needing to show some tangible progress to the electorate to help deliver that. Whether Sir Keir Starmer remains prime minister is a further question; although as I write, two weeks on from Streeting’s resignation, the situation seems a little calmer for the time being.
Spring is a busy time for events and I’ve been out and about over recent weeks. You can read a report from the latest POCT Innovators event later in this issue; a very interesting day with a broad range of informative content that regular attendees of these events have come to expect. My thanks to Tony Cambridge for continuing to host Pathology in Practice. Another close partner of PiP for even longer is the British Society for Microbial Technology; with May seeing the Society’s Annual Microbiology Conference take place. A report to come in a future issue of another valuable and informative event.
Lots to keep readers busy over the pages of this issue, from statistical guidance for hypothesis testing from Dr Stephen MacDonald, Professor Mike Wren on changing global disease patterns and the challenge for microbiologists, through to how the evolution of genomic sequencing technologies aligns with new medical device regulation.
Andy Myall