Professor Tom Keane will launch the rollout of the National Quality Assurance Programme in Histopathology on 17th June 2009 at 09:30 in The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, No.6 Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

The implementation of this National Quality Assurance Programme in Histopathology is a new initiative, developed by the Faculty of Pathology, RCPI in collaboration with the HSE’s National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) and the National Hospitals Office (NHO) This new initiative builds on the existing local quality systems to establish a framework that enables each hospital to monitor and evaluate their own performance against national benchmarks in an effort to assure and improve patient safety. This is central to the development of high quality cancer and other services and to ensuring enhancement to patient care.  Recent events have also reaffirmed the critically important role of a Quality Assurance Programme in Histopathology in the delivery of high quality cancer care in Ireland.

The Faculty of Pathology has developed comprehensive guidelines for the implementation of this National Quality Assurance Programme. The guidelines have now been issued to all Histopathology Laboratories in Ireland for implementation and provide guidance on the implementation of a Quality Assurance Programme in Histopathology by defining the key quality parameters that should be monitored. The implementation of these guidelines is recommended by HIQA for all Histopathology Laboratories.

The development and implementation of this programme is expected to be completed by end 2010. The key activities during this timeframe will be the implementation of IT (or other) solutions by each participating hospital to capture the key quality data, as set out in the guidelines, and the submission of this key quality data to the Faculty of Pathology on a structured basis for the development of National Quality Assurance benchmarks for Histopathology. Thereafter the data will be collated and reviewed on an ongoing basis as an integral part of the delivery of Histopathology services.

Speaking on the programme Professor Tom Keane, Interim Director of the NCCP, congratulated the Faculty for the initiative it has taken in development of its services and for embedding quality standards as a key area of performance. This can only contribute to increasing patient and public confidence in our diagnostic and overall services. It is also to be welcomed that our histopathology laboratories will also be benchmarked against national and international standards.

The Faculty of Pathology has taken a leadership role in the setting of quality standards for the Pathology service. Speaking on the programme, Professor Conor O’Keane, Dean of the Faculty, acknowledges the highly professional work of all Pathologists in Ireland but is also very cognisant that we can never eliminate error completely in all medical activities including diagnostic pathology. Therefore the implementation of a National QA Programme is critical to minimising error and assuring that standards of quality are continually maintained and improved.  Prof O’ Keane commended his pathologist colleagues for their engagement and commitment to this programme which will underpin the successful implementation of this challenging quality initiative. The Faculty of Pathology and its members welcome this initiative and the support it has received from the NCCP and NHO.

Fore more information please contact:

Joanna Holly

Royal College of Physicians of Ireland

Direct Ph: +353 1 8639743

Main Ph: +353 1 8639700

Mobile: +353 87 2120245