ACB New s The Association for Clinical Biochemistry & Laboratory Medicine | Issue 665 | June 2020 In this issue Message from the President News from ACB HQ Lockdown Life Annual General Meetings Workforce Development Clinical Chemistry – 9th Edition About ACB News The Editor is responsible for the final content; advertisers are responsible for the content of adverts. Views expressed are not ACB News necessarily those of the ACB. Lead Editor The bi-monthly magazine for clinical science Mr Ian Hanning Retired Issue 665 • June 2020 Formerly Department of Clinical Chemistry Hull Royal Infirmary Email: [email protected] Message from the President page 4 Associate Editors Mrs Sophie Barnes Department of Clinical Biochemistry Charing Cross Hospital CEO Update page 5 Email: [email protected] Dr Gina Frederick Pathology Laboratory Royal Derby Hospital Coronavirus/COVID-19 page 6 Email: [email protected] Mrs Nicola Merrett Department of Laboratory Medicine University Hospital Southampton NHS General News page 20 Foundation Trust Email: [email protected] Dr Christopher Pitt Department of Biochemistry Microbiology News page 23 NHS Ayrshire & Arran Email: [email protected] Dr Derren Ready Immunology News page 24 National Infection Service Public Health England Email: [email protected] Situations Vacant Advertising Deacon’s Challenge Revisited page 26 Please contact the ACB Office: Tel: 0207-403-8001 Fax: 0207-403-8006 Email: [email protected] Meeting Reports page 28 Display Advertising & Inserts PRC Associates Ltd 1st Floor Offices 115 Roebuck Road Obituary page 33 Chessington Surrey KT9 1JZ Tel: 0208-337-3749 Fax: 0208-337-7346 Email: [email protected] BIVDA News page 34 ACB Administrative Office Association for Clinical Biochemistry & Laboratory Medicine 130-132 Tooley Street ACB News Crossword page 36 London SE1 2TU Tel: 0207-403-8001 Fax: 0207-403-8006 Email: [email protected] Situations Vacant page 0 ACB President Professor Neil Anderson Tel: 024-7696-5397 Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ACBPresident ACB CEO Jane Pritchard Email: [email protected] ACB Home Page http://www.acb.org.uk ISSN 1461 0337 © Association for Clinical Biochemistry & Laboratory Medicine 2020 Front cover: Credit - Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Issue 665 | June 2020 | ACB News 4 | Message from the President COVID-19 statement from the ACB President: Better science, better testing, better care I hope you are all well. Since the last message I wrote, so much has changed and developed and our knowledge base on COVID-19 has expanded exponentially. That is in no small part down to the involvement of ACB Members in the translation and delivery of new tests, and new processes and algorithms to benefit the patients we serve. All of this whilst still keeping the excellent existing service running. First and foremost, I want to applaud ACB Members for your dedication, professionalism and unstinting hard work over the last few months. Never has our strapline ‘better science, better testing, better care’ been more important than it is now as we battle to get COVID-19 under control, with the appropriate use of diagnostic tests, at the centre of delivering the best possible patient care. All this against a backdrop of intense media comment. Whilst media and public interest within the hour. And we hope the in our profession is to be welcomed it is weekly COVID-19 e-newsletter has been essential that what is reported is accurate helpful in keeping you up-to-date and so we’ve put a range of activities in with current advice and guidance and place to address this. helped you to feel connected to the We’ve partnered with the Science Media ACB community. Please do continue to Centre to provide expert responses to contribute. journalists’ questions, we are sending out Thanks must also go to the ACB News regular Expert Briefings on testing, team who are working to tighter and we are using our website and social deadlines to ensure our content is media to share official briefing and advice. current in the ever-changing environment We have also allowed free access to where a week seems like a month. journal articles relating to COVID-19. We have enjoyed hearing your stories I’d like to express huge thanks to throughout and sharing to keep our volunteer experts: Rob Shorten, Members connected so do please keep Alex Yates, Liz Bateman, Hazel Borthwick, sending us your news to Rachel Wheeler and Kam Chatha, [email protected] I who have been providing responses to media enquiries at pace – sometimes Professor Neil Anderson Issue 665 | June 2020 | ACB News CEO Update | 5 News from the ACB HQ As I write this, we have just ended week seven of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a team we are immensely proud of the work that our members are doing in labs all over the country to roll out and scale up NHS testing capacity to offer the best possible diagnosis and care to patients. It is a privilege to support you while you carry out this vital work. We’re working hard to make sure we continue to maintain services to members from our homes and are busy upgrading the ACB membership software and working on the new website for launch later in the summer. Our thanks go to the Communications Committee, led by Kam Chatha, for all the preparation work office will appreciate. they did last year to drive this much It seems as though we may soon be needed change. returning in a phased way to the Office We’re in the midst of preparing for the and we will certainly plan to have a ACB’s first virtual AGM in June which skeleton staff in situ as soon as we can – presents its own special challenges with starting with those that live closest and the design of a new voting system and ensuring we follow safety guidelines. management of a large number of people Over the next few weeks we’ll be on video and phone links. We had some firming up our plans for future meetings. practice at our first virtual Council Meeting We’ll also be making some changes and last week chaired by our President Neil consolidation to deliver costs efficiencies; Anderson. Details for participation in the we’re thinking long-term as we prepare to AGM will be e-mailed to you soon. make a formal bid to host EuroMedLab We are really grateful that we 2025. subscribed to new emailing services just We’re all looking forward to getting before lockdown, as our poor internet the Office in Tooley Street back up and connection stopped us accessing the running with a renewed vigour, and we database for the first few weeks. look forward to welcoming you there, A desperate plea to Virgin Media and a or at one of our meetings, as soon as we couple of mad cycle rides by me up to are advised it is safe to do so. Tooley Street have managed to sort the In the meantime, stay well and stay safe issue and we now have internet speeds and carry on with the incredible work. I five times faster than before! Something I know members who regularly visit the Jane Pritchard Issue 665 | June 2020 | ACB News 6 | Coronavirus/COVID-19 COVID-19 – What is the ACB doing? Laboratory testing has never been so high Issued articles can be accessed here: profile in the press as it is today. The ACB has been working in several ways to help N Expert briefing COVID-19 diagnosis, get accurate information to the press and patient assessment and monitoring, public, as well as keeping our membership 4th April 2020: http://www.acb.org. informed with this rapidly changing uk/whatwesay/acb_newspage/2020/ situation. Within a few weeks the ACB set 04/04/acb-expert-briefing-on- up several ways to keep the press and our covid-19-diagnosis-patient- membership informed. assessment-and-monitoring Since early April 2020 we have been: N Expert briefing on the vital role of N Releasing statements and expert NHS laboratories in providing quality briefings to the press on topics testing for COVID-19 leading to the such as different testing methods best possible patient care, 30th April and the need for trained, registered 2020: staff to accurately interpret results http://www.acb.org.uk/whatwesay/ (see links below). acb_newspage/2020/04/30/acb- expert-briefing-on-the-vital-role-of- N Promoting statements and expert nhs-laboratories-in-providing-quality- briefings on social media channels. testing-leading-to-the-best-possible- N Rapidly responding to journalist patient-care enquiries with accurate scientific information via the Science Media Centre. This was all done thanks to Committee staff giving their time voluntarily and with N Updating a new webpage for a small team at the ACB Office. COVID-19 updates and resources: We hope this work will contribute to www.acb.org.uk/whatwesay/ promoting accurate scientific information covid19-updates and raising the profile of NHS laboratory N Sending regular COVID-19 updates/ staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. newsletters to our membership. Please send COVID-19 related stories (especially good news stories!) and Communicating accurate updates that may be relevant to the scientific information and raising ACB membership to include in the the profile of NHS laboratory COVID-19 updates newsletter by emailing staff during the COVID-19 [email protected] pandemic If you would like to be a registered ACB Spokesperson with the Science Media Centre, please get in touch via [email protected] – note, you will need to be able to respond to enquiries within 2 hours.