Part 1 mock revision series commencing in mid January

The next series of Part 1 revision sessions will begin from mid January 2024 for the spring sitting. If you are keen to join the mocks please email Dr Rathi Ramakrishnan.

Rotation Planning - August 2023

Please click here to read the letter from Dr Rathi Ramakrishnan (Training Programme Director for Northwest London) regarding rotation preferences for August 2023. The deadline for submitting the forms is 3rd March 2023.

Transparency around rotation planning

Dear all,

Happy new year all and hope you got some time to rest.

One of the queries raised in the trainee feedback during STC meeting was transparency around rotation planning where a few trainees felt their preferences/choices were not taken into consideration. I am sorry they felt this way.

I got an opportunity over the Xmas/NY to review 2022 preference forms and allocations that I made for Aug 2022.

I can confirm:

• 83% (87/106 trainees) were given one of their 3 preference(s) 

• 65% (69/106 trainees) were given their 1st preference

• 17% (19/106 trainees) were offered other available spots (not their preferred ones). I can also confirm that I personally had a discussion with each of them and their TPD before we agreed on a placement. 
  

Thanks all.

Sincerely, 

Rathi

 Dr Rathi Ramakrishnan MD, FRCPath

TPD meeting 29.11.22 - Trainee feedback responses

A Training Programme Director (TPD) Meeting took place on 29th November 2022.

Histopathology registrars of London and South East were encouraged in advance to submit and queries, concerns and comments for discussion at this meeting.

Click here for the password-protected page containing the TPD responses to trainee feedback.

A Speciality Training Committee (STC) Meeting is scheduled to take place on 20th December 2022.

If you have any feedback that you would like to share on the current state of training, please let us know by completing trainee feedback survey. This will then be discussed at the STC meeting on the 20th of December. 

International Survey of Medical Cytopathology Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dear trainees,

My name is Nataliya Piletska, and I am a senior histopathology registrar working in North West London Pathology, hosted by Imperial College London NHS Trust. I am also the Regional Representative for HistoLaSE.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many challenges to cytopathology training, leading to many changes and adaptations.

Survey link: https://forms.gle/yj2znZEEwbxHrJL26

This survey aims to address the experiences of cellular pathology trainees and pay particular attention to the impacts of COVID-19 on cytopathology training. This survey has been commissioned for publication in the journal Cytopathology, in an issue dedicated to COVID-19.

We would be grateful if you could complete this survey, which should take approximately 5 minutes, by 7th November 2022. The individual responses will be anonymous, but the responses will be analysed by country, to look for differences which may help plan future training in cytopathology.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Nataliya

Cervical Cytology Placements at CSL

Notice to all trainees continuing gynae cytology training:

The time in CSL is very rarefied and there is a lot to complete whilst there.

ST2s and ST3+ trainees doing cervical cytology are expected to attend CSL even if there are conflicting regional study days. The ST2-ST5 study days are recorded and can be accessed afterwards.

Autopsy Teaching by Prof Sebastian Lucas

Prof Sebastian Lucas will be delivering series of autopsy lectures during this academic year starting from September 7th 2022. Junior trainees (ST1/ST2) and senior trainees who are continuing autopsy training will find these teaching sessions really useful.

Click here to see the programme (September - January)

The sessions will be held on Wednesday 1-2 pm in the Large Seminar Room at St Thomas’ Hospital, Department of Cellular Pathology, Level 2, North Wing.

Trainees can join these sessions remotely via the link on this page (password-protected).

Annual School of Pathology Virtual Conference: Beyond the Science - 1st September 2022

Dear all,

Every year the London KSS School of Pathology Trainees come together in a training day that keeps us connected and in touch with cutting-edge achievements in our field.

This year, we can all contribute by sharing one of our challenging cases and what we learned from it. Ideally please include a question with answer feedback. All cases will be shared with the Trainees of the School and shortlisted ones will be presented in the Conference!

Looking forward to seeing you all (albeit virtually!) on the day.

Best wishes,

The conference organising committee

Fellowships in Clinical Artificial Intelligence

The London AI Centre invite applications for the UK's first Fellowships in Clinical Artificial Intelligence.

The post duration is 1 year at 2 days/wk, beginning in May 2022. It is open to specialty trainees in the London region and Kent Surrey Sussex region. These fellowships are funded and supported by Health Education England. The deadline for applications is 30th January 2022.

Fellows will gain expertise in Clinical Artificial Intelligence (AI) in an integrated pathway alongside their specialty training and implement groundbreaking work in the use of state-of-the-art AI software in live hospital environments.

For more information, click here to read the flier and click here to visit the website.

RCPath Midlands and East of England Surgery

Message from The Royal College of Pathologists, 1st November:

I am writing to invite you to join me at the first RCPath Midlands and East of England surgery, where all members in the region are warmly invited to meet with me via a Microsoft Teams virtual session. This will be an open forum for me to meet you and hear about your work, areas of concern and any points of interest that you wish to raise with me. I plan to hold these in the time before College Council meets in order to present our region’s interests and concerns to this body. These surgeries are hopefully also an opportunity for you to meet via Teams with colleagues across our region.

The surgery will be held on Friday 5 November 2021, 10am-12pm. Please see joining link below:

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Learn More

In addition to this, I am available via my College email address laszlo.igali@rcpath.org to hear from you with topics that you feel are of importance for the College.

All the best

Laszlo

Dr Laszlo Igali

English Regional Representative to Council (Midlands and East of England)

Royal College of Pathologists

HEE: Study Leave Newsletter

Newsletter from the Study Leave Team, Health Education England:

Dear trainees,

We are writing with a few updates with regards to study leave policies on international events and leadership courses.

International Study Leave

We wanted to provide a reminder on international study leave rules:

Please note that all international study leave events must be approved via the aspirational study leave process and will require an aspirational approval code in order to claim reimbursement. International, for the purposes of study leave, is defined as those events taking place outside the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Funding will be approved for the lower amount of either the course fee or the travel and accommodation expenses. In cases where the course fee has been waived, there is a cap of £500 maximum on travel and accommodation expenses.

With regards to Covid travel restrictions, please note that any international leave should align to current UK Government regulations and those of the host country. Any costs associated with quarantine expenses cannot be claimed from the HEE study leave budget. You should discuss any additional leave (either unpaid or paid) required for enforced quarantine periods with your employing Trust.

Online International Events – now aspirational

From 1st October 2021 onwards, all online international events will now require an aspirational approval code. Please note that this is a change to our previous policy, in which virtual events could be claimed using the general conference code from the course lists. If you are applying to attend a virtual international event please note that you will need to submit an aspirational study leave application. The full aspirational study leave application process can be found on our website here: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/helpdesk/attachments/7067965990. Please note that online international events will not count towards your international conference limit.

Leadership Courses

From 28th April 2021, all leadership courses that attract a cost have required approval via the aspirational study leave process. Trainees seeking leadership training should in the first instance access the free NHS Leadership Academy Edward Jenner or the LEEP programme delivered by an NHS Trust or HEE, and only seek to apply for a funded leadership course if these options are not available. Please see the FAQ here for more details on this: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/solutions/articles/7000064656-can-i-apply-for-a-leadership-management-course-.

Please do contact the study leave team if you have any questions about the study leave process. We can be reached via the following link on the PGMDE Support Portal: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/tickets/new?form_25=true.

Kind regards,

Study Leave Team

HistoLaSE Annual General Meeting 2021

The HistoLaSE Annual General Meeting will be taking place on Monday 27th of September, 19:00 - 20:00 PM (BST).

Please click here to find the agenda and joining details (password-protected page).

We welcome you all to join the meeting.

RCPath Trainees’ Advisory Committee - September 2021

To access the Trainees Update from Dr Matthew Clarke, Chair of the RCPath Trainees Advisory Committee please click here (Password-protected page).

HistoLaSE Trainees Committee

The HistoLaSE Trainees Committee is looking for enthusiastic trainees to join the team.

The posts include:

• Communications Officers (up to two posts available)

• ST1 Representative

• Trust Grade Representative

This is an excellent opportunity to build confidence in leadership and managerial roles. You can find the description of the role here, as well as information about the committee in general.

Please email histolase@gmail.com with your CV, current rotation site, grade, and preferred position on the committee.

The deadline for application is 19th September. We look forward to hearing from you!

Paediatric Pathology Lectures for ST1 - ST2s

Dr Sadia Zafreen, an ST5 Paediatric Pathology trainee, has kindly organised a series of lectures with a number of speakers to cover aspects of paediatric and perinatal pathology outlined in the new ICPT curriculum. They will be held on Teams on Tuesdays at 14:00 PM (BST). These lectures are aimed at ST1s, although interested ST2s are welcome too. You will be receiving the invite in due course. More information can be found here.

• 21/09/21 - 14:00 - 16:00 PM (BST) - Placenta grossing parts 1 and 2

• 28/09/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Normal placenta histology

• 05/10/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Placenta: Inflammatory lesions

• 26/10/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Placenta: Vascular malperfusion

• 02/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Importance of perinatal autopsy

• 09/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Perinatal autopsy techniques

• 16/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Pathology of early pregnancy loss

• 23/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Autopsy case presentations: IUD/Stillbirth

• 30/11/21 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Autopsy case presentations: TOPFA

• 11/01/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Common aneuploidies and cardiac malformations

• 18/01/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Neuroblastoma and nephroblastoma

• 25/01/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - ALL, Burkitt’s and Hodgkin’s lymphoma

• 01/02/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Rhabdomyosarcoma and other paediatric soft tissue tumours

• 08/02/22 - 14:00 - 15:00 PM (BST) - Paediatric surgical pathology taster - congenital anomalies, common skin lesions and GI pathology

PathSoc: 2022 Winter School

The 2022 Winter School - Registration OPEN!

7-11 February 2022

After the success of the 2021 completely digitized on-line course, the 2022 winter school will follow the same format.

The course is aimed at Specialist Trainees in Histopathology from years ST2-5 and is based around sessions discussing cases that have been viewed by delegates prior to the course. The cases are selected by speakers as educationally valuable cases with the FRCPath Part 2 in mind

Register Now

View the Registration Information

Nottingham FRCPath Part 2 Revision Course - Sept 2021

Dear all,

Earlier this year we ran a FRCPath part 2 revision course. We are re-running this course in September 2021.

This 2 week Histopathology and Cytology course aims to prepare Histopathologists for the Histopathology FRCPath Part 2 Examination. The course aims to cover all the major topic areas of the examination syllabus. This year our FRCPath part 2 revision course will be available for virtual and physical attendance at the Jubilee Conference Centre, Jubilee Campus in Nottingham, England.

In person delegates will have 24 hour access to the glass glides with microscope usage at the Jubilee campus. Please note we only have a limited number of places for physical attendance.

We will also be live streaming online across the 2 week period, providing delegates with the opportunity to ask questions and to discuss with peers. The course aims to cover all the major topic areas of the examination syllabus and will be delivered by a faculty chosen for their expertise within their disciplines, both in their clinical acumen and teaching skills. More information can be found on our website https://nottinghamfrcpath.com/

Our online booking is now live to take bookings.  Please use the following link if you would like to attend: https://store.nottingham.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/conferences/schools-and-departments/medicine/nottingham-frcpath-part-2-revision-course-2021

I would be grateful if you could forward this to any colleagues that may find this course useful.

Many Thanks

Stacey Churchill

-----------------------

Speciality Trainee Co-ordinator & PA to the Training Programme Director

Histopathology

Queens Medical Centre Campus

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

Derby Road, Nottingham, NG7 2UH

PLEASE NOTE MY WORKING DAYS ARE MON, TUE, WED 9AM-5PM

ST1 Handbook 2021-2022

The ST1 Handbook 2021-2022 can be found on the password-protected ST1 page here.

National Training Survey

From 27th July, you can find out the results of the 2021 national training survey.

Your responses will help us make sure you and your colleagues get the experiences and support you need and deserve during your training. And they'll be a key source for us, education bodies and employers to support training to recover from the pandemic.

Thank you for filling in this year's survey, particularly at this time of huge challenge. There's an overview of the results in the next section of this email.

Read a summary of key findings or find your organisation or specialty results

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What you told us - your progression and wellbeing

With over 63,000 responses, the survey gives us the most complete picture so far of how the pandemic has impacted your training, wellbeing and workload. While the standard of training remains high, burnout has increased to the highest level since we started asking these questions in 2018. Many of you also highlighted concerns about opportunities to gain the required competencies for your training.

• Almost nine in ten trainees described their clinical supervision as good or very good. And three quarters of you said that virtual learning environments were being used effectively to support your training.

• A third of you told us you felt burnt out or very burnt out as a result of your work. This is up from a quarter of trainees last year. 44% of you said you felt emotionally exhausted to a high or very high degree as a result of your work.

• Eight out of ten trainees were confident they'd be able to progress to the next stage of training. However, 31% of you felt you haven't been able to compensate for lost opportunities through transferable skills from other aspects of your training.

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How your answers influence change

As we work through the pandemic, doctors' wellbeing must be central to service and training recovery. We'll continue to do everything we can to speak up about why that's essential for training progression, for the future of the medical workforce and for patient care.

Your responses help us work with others to tackle local and UK-wide issues to improve training:

• Along with postgraduate deans, employers and royal colleges, we'll use the data to resolve problems at individual workplaces and share good practice across the UK. Watch our video from when we launched this year's survey to learn more about how we do this.

• We'll continue to join with royal colleges and education bodies to help trainees catch up on competencies that might have been missed due to the pandemic.

• We're working with employers and education bodies to create training environments which are more supportive, inclusive and fair for all. This includes the targets we've set ourselves to eliminate discrimination, disadvantage and unfairness in medical education and training by 2031. Your survey responses help us measure change and pinpoint where we need to drive improvements.

Thanks once again for the extraordinary professionalism you have shown throughout the past year.

Kind regards,

Professor Colin Melville

Twitter: @drcolinm

GMC no: 2806806

Medical Director and Director of Education and Standards

General Medical Council

PathSoc/ASiT: Educational Webinars - Call for Volunteers

The Path Soc trainee subcommittee will be partnering with Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT) to deliver educational webinars in September 2021 covering essentials in histopathology for surgical trainees preparing to sit the MRCS.

We are therefore seeking volunteer trainees (post FRCPath Part 1) who wish to participate in this teaching opportunity (great for CV/ portfolio!).

We will be aiming to discuss common entities and the relevant histological features, molecular characteristics, grading and staging, screening, important definitions.

The format will be three evening webinars, with each webinar comprising two 1-hour sessions covering the following specialties:

• Breast

• GI

• Urology

• Skin/MSK

• Head & Neck

There will also be an introductory session to basic principles/definitions in histopathology.

Volunteer presenters will be asked to assist in preparing these presentations with help from the organising team from Path Soc TSC, and deliver the session virtually on the assigned date (TBC, will be in the evenings).

If you are interested please contact Solange De Noon.