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CellPath were pleased to bring peace of mind to Kerry, by donating £100 towards the cost of a brand-new defibrillator.

This can now be seen outside the Village Hall – a central point of the village – which gives easy access to both the residents and visitors of the village.

 

The importance of having a defibrillator

 

A defibrillator is a simple and effective device that gives a high energy shock to the heart through the chest wall, to an adult or child over the age of 1 years old who are suffering from a cardiac arrest.

For every minute passed without receiving CPR and defibrillation, decreases the chance of survival by up to 10%. An alarming statistic!

Having an accessible defibrillator increases the chances of survival of up to 75% – a difference potentially between life and death.

 

Community Spirit

 

Purchase of the defibrillator was made possible thanks to donations but was mainly due to the fundraising efforts of the local community.

Various events such as social evenings, dances and raffles helped to raise over £5,000 in total. A fantastic effort by everyone involved!

As a result, the village are now able to buy a second defibrillator. Which they will be looking to place at the Football Club in the near future.

On 22 August 2017 CellNass successfully completed a site visit inspection in compliance with Human Tissue Authority (HTA) licensing standards, being found to have met all HTA requirements.

 

 In concluding the report, the HTA stated:

 

The facility is well run, and staff interviewed have an awareness of the importance of the tissue they hold and the regulatory requirements under the Human Tissue Act. There were a number of areas of good practice observed on inspection:

 

· The establishment’s tracking system is well managed and gives customers oversight of tissue in storage

· The recall process for samples is well managed and has a number of built-in double checks to ensure the sample returned to the customer is the one requested

· Feedback from customers and any incidents are reviewed and used for learning, often resulting in improvements in systems and processes

· Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) documents are well organised, have pictures to add clarity and a number of processes are also available as a flowchart which is easily followed

· All boxes stored in the facility have a plastic cover to protect them in the unlikely event of a sprinkler malfunction

· The tissue held for research is stored in formalin, so the establishment takes additional care when the customer requests samples, and staff themselves transport the material by car to ensure its safe arrival.

 

The HTA has assessed the establishment as suitable to be licensed for the activities specified.

 

To view the full inspection report, please follow the link below:

 

https://www.hta.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2017-08-22%2012434%20CellPath%20Ltd%20inspection%20report%20-%20final.pdf

 

 

Who are the Human Tissue Authority?

 

The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) is a regulator set up in 2005 following events in the 1990s that revealed a culture in hospitals of removing and retaining human organs without consent. The legislation that established the HTA not only addressed this issue but also updated and brought together other laws that relate to human organs and tissue.

 

The HTA were created by Parliament as a non-departmental public body of the Department of Health, and are overseen by an Authority of lay and professional members appointment by the Government.

 

The HTA regulate organisations that remove, store and use human tissue for research, post-mortem examination, medical treatment, education and training. Organ and bone marrow donations from living people are also approved by the HTA.

 

Why do the HTA carry out inspections?

 

The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) regulate organisations that remove, store and use human bodies and tissues for certain purposes. Their goal is to maintain confidence that human tissue and organs are used safely and ethically with proper consent.

 

The HTA license over 800 organisations across six regulated sectors in the United Kingdom. Standards are set by the HTA on all aspects of practice and ensure that all their licensed establishments are operating to these standards. Every organisation must nominate a person to supervise the activities for which they are licensed, known as a Designated Individual (DI).

 

The HTA carry out inspections to access whether the DI is suitable to supervise the activities covered by their license. Visiting the establishment is an important part of their inspection process as it gives them the opportunity to not only talk to the DI and their staff but to view the premises and facilities, and review their policies and procedures.

 

After every site visit inspection, the HTA write a report documenting their findings. A HTA report sets out the good practices found, as well as any concerns they may have. Any evidence of breached regulations is also clearly set out. The HTA also make recommendations to help the organisation improve on any areas of underperformance.

 

 

What is CellNass?

 

CellNass is an innovative, national archive management service from Cell Path Ltd. Although CellNass was originally intended for the archiving of pathology blocks and slides, over recent years it has expanded to cover multiple disciplines with materials such as blood spot cards, transfusion records, documents, paper reports and much more. As a result, CellNass is now able to provide a complete archive management solution, ideal for hospitals – more than 50% of NHS hospitals now use CellNass – and laboratories with limited or expensive-to-run onsite storage space.

 

Continual investment in their facilities and technology, along with a dedicated team of professionals with expertise in Pathology and logistics, means that CellNass have an in-depth understanding of their client’s requirements and their working environment.

 

 Benefits of using CellNass:

 

Allows hospitals to release space for other uses Dedicated archiving environment Removes the time and effort required to operate an onsite archiving facility Enables laboratory staff to focus on their daily tasks rather than onsite archiving Full traceability and easy retrieval of individual items using CellNass’ unique archive management system, CellTrak. Cost effective solution

Interview with Jacqueline Smith – Interim Operations Manager for Histopathology – Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust.

At Northampton General Hospital the storage of a large amount of histopathology material, reaching back 25 years, was reaching crisis point – with cabinets placed along the corridor, on different floors and 15 minutes away in another part of the hospital. As space ran out, the only way to create more was to rotate older material once it passed 25 years of age. The situation came to a head when borrowed space elsewhere in the hospital was needed for a different purpose, leaving no option but to look for an alternative, long-term solution for archiving.

Deputy Head of Pathology Mary Pendleton started the process by contacting CellPath, regarding its CellNass service, having heard about its facilities through the CPA (Clinical Pathology Accreditation), and Jacqueline Smith continued with the communication when she took on the role of Histopathology Operations Manager.

“On auditing the CellNass facility in Wales I was struck by the efficiency of the whole process,” says Jacqueline. “It was 21st-century technology at its best. Compared to our situation there was so much room – it reminded me of a big superstore. I watched the whole process of slides being indexed and archived and was impressed by the speed and accuracy. Seeing the team in action was reassuring and gave me total confidence. During the visit we had complete access to the whole facility and all the staff were helpful and friendly.”

“Once the decision was made, we sat down and did the planning. The CellNass people really did their homework – asking lots of questions and assessing logistical issues they might face when removing our material. As a result, the uplift was perfect and there were no complaints from the outpatient area next door.”

“CellNass also helped us manage the remaining slides and blocks we hold on site, with more effective storage solutions that make it so much easier to find things. Each year we now remove a single year of material to CellNass, always leaving the last five years’ here in Northampton.”

“The support we received was first class and nothing ever appeared to be too much trouble to the CellNass team. Our challenge at the start of the process was to find a long-term solution – and when you’re forced to make a major change like this, you have to make sure it’s better than what you had before. With CelllNass we achieved this.”

We are always happy to welcome customers to have a look at our facilities - if you'd like a tour, please use the form on the right and a member of our customer care team will be in touch to arrange an invitation to visit.

“ I have people asking me why we don’t do the storage and archiving ourselves… If we were to do it the costs involved simply wouldn’t add up – using CellNass is a no-brainer!”

Did you know that the CellNass Service has now been operating for well over 10 years!

Since the initial concept the facilities have seen expansion 3 times and if you visit the headquarters today you’ll discover a state-of-the-art purpose-built archiving solution designed with the customer in mind. But why exactly did our first customer choose CellNass? To find out this and more – including their experiences of using CellNass for the best part of decade – we interviewed Ian Sturgess, Histopathology Manager at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

“I’ve been at Addenbrooke’s for 7 years,” says Ian. “So I did inherit the CellNass system but it’s been so valuable, trouble-free and efficient that there’s never been any question about changing. I hear of very few problems so that’s got to be a good sign!”

Addenbrooke’s is a hospital connected to Cambridge University, providing care for the community while retaining a strong research focus. A tissue bank is maintained for research and education and samples here are kept for a long period (with samples recently sent to CellNass dating back to the 40’s and 50’s). With medical and tissue bank staff there are approximately 160 employees performing tests – with full consent of course – on 900,000 specimen samples a year.

“Normally there’s a legal requirement for slides to be kept for 10 years and blocks for 30 years, but due to the important research we conduct here it makes sense for our blocks and slides to be kept for much longer, potentially indefinitely– they’re a valuable resource that helps us find cures and discover new insight. The 24-hour turnaround retrieval request process available with CellNass plays an important role – when my team need to retrieve blocks/slides it’s a very easy and efficient process.”

Before deciding to opt for CellNass’ system Addenbrooke’s kept their tissue samples on-site.

So why was the change needed?

“CellNass are not just a storage facility: They collect, archive, ensure optimum conditions for tissue samples and have HTA certification, which is essential. Occasionally I have people asking me why we don’t do the storage and archiving ourselves but CellNass already have a successful facility and system in place. If we were to do it the costs involved in both the licensing and freeing my staff to go there (and retrieve) simply wouldn’t add up – It’s a no-brainer!”

Ian and his team take advantage of the CellNass indexing system and a process whereby their metal slide/block trays are taken from the cabinets, uplifted from the site and put into cardboard boxes at the CellNass facility, with the metal trays then returned – eliminating the need for Addenbrooke’s to purchase new cabinets. Having established that Ian is happy with a system that is working well it felt like time to discover how Addenbrooke’s first heard about CellNass.

“Although I wasn’t in charge when we opted to use CellNass I’ve actually known Colin Brewer – who is very much of the histopathology sector – since about 1988. He approached me when developing the idea for CellNass and used me as an informal sounding board. They’re people I trust and despite CellNass being more than 10-years old there’s still nobody offering a comparable service.”

We are always happy to welcome customers to have a look at our facilities - if you'd like a tour, please use the form on the right and a member of our customer care team will be in touch to arrange an invitation to visit.

Trudy Johnson the Department Manager of Cellular Pathology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, shares her experience of archiving at CellNass.

“The ever-growing volume of blocks and slides in our Cellular Pathology Laboratory was stored in an adjacent room, but when we made the move to LBC (Liquid Based Cytology) the room used for storage was required to house this process.

As space throughout the hospital was at a premium, our immediate and short-term solution was to move storage blocks and slides to a Council run storage facility nearby. However, without a Human Tissue Authority (HTA) licence no patient records could be externally stored resulting in the need to store these in dispersed locations around the hospital site.

The situation was far from ideal. Every time we needed to retrieve a slide, two people were required to take time out thereby losing us valuable laboratory time and often leaving us short staffed. Combine this with an ever increasing archive requirement and future plans to collaborate with neighbouring hospitals to develop a regional Centre of Excellence, we knew we needed a more effective long-term solution.

The catalyst for change occurred with the closure of the Council run storage facility in 2011. Our first steps were to identify our future storage needs from a HTA approved establishment, the level of service and support we would expect in terms of the archiving process, recall procedures, response times and associated cost. Our specification formed the basis for an open tender, alongside a site visit which would ultimately play a large part in our decision-making process.

Our first impressions during the site visit to the CellNass HTA licensed facilities in Wales were very impressive. A number of things stood out for us instantly.

Firstly, they talked our language. Pathology is clearly at the heart of their business and they understood our requirements in detail. They used the same words we used and because they are experts in slide and block storage systems, it made us realise that handling and indexing would be in safe hands. Secondly, we were shown the whole process from start to finish. Seeing CellNass people in action was very reassuring. Every stage was demonstrated fully, showing us both the process and the people involved, helping us experience their service first hand and estimate the likely response time to any request.

Once confirmed as our preferred archiving partner, we welcomed the CellNass team to Gateshead where they made a visit to our existing store and conducted necessary risk assessments for moving and lifting the material. For our convenience, CellNass removed everything in its existing state, indexing and repacking back at the archive facility. The service was soon put to the test when we made a quick recall, leaving us delighted in the ease by which the process worked.

An interesting benefit we have found of archiving with CellNass is the ease in which we can cost and retrieve groups of blocks or slides for research work. Previously, our staff could spend hours retrieving and providing internal retrieval costs – now it happens simply and quickly, without any interruption to laboratory time.

Being treated as a valued customer and building long-term partnerships has always been more important. So we were very pleased when CellNass agreed to provide a flexible service arrangement under the banner of our Managed Service Contract – helping us maintain an aligned procurement strategy into the future.”

We are always happy to welcome customers to have a look at our facilities - if you'd like a tour, please use the form on the right and a member of our customer care team will be in touch to arrange an invitation to visit.