Introduction In this issue ...

• Document Revision – completed December 2004
• Disc containing updated documents
• Letter from Dr Ken Scott, Chief Executive

• PAC Membership
• CPA Annual Conference 2005
• Diary Dates
• References for use with CPA Standards

Document Revision

CPA has a commitment to review the standard for accreditation and revise where necessary the assessment handbook and associated forms annually. The Standards, Training and Education Group began this task in July this year and we present here up-dated editions of the CPA Standards, the Conduct of Assessments and all associated forms. They are downloadable from the CPA website and we have also attached a disc here for your convenience. Please take the time to familiarise yourself with the changes to the standards and the new assessment handbook.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members
of the Standards, Training and Education Group
for all their hard work this summer. It is greatly appreciated.

We have taken the decision to remove the references / bibliography from the standards. We present a separate paper here containing those references. This is being printed as a one-off edition dated December 2004 and at present we do not intend to revise these references or keep them up-to-date in this printed format. What we will be doing in future is providing a list of websites that hold valuable information to support these standards. This information can be found on the CPA support website, www.cpa-uk.co.uk, and will be up-dated monthly.

Cheryl Blair

Change is a continuous process at CPA and this newsletter contains information on what has happened since the last edition.

This is the first time that I have written in it since taking over from Mansel Haeney as Chief Executive in September this year, and my first task is to acknowledge the enormous contribution that Mansel made to CPA. He began with the organisation in 1991 and carried out one of the first inspection pilot visits to Dundee. That same year he became Chairman of the Immunology SAC, a post he held for 5 years. This also involved membership of the JAC and he chaired this from 1994 to 1996. After a short break he returned in 1997 to be the Chief Executive of the Laboratory Accreditation side of CPA and he held this position until he retired in 2004. During this time CPA has undergone many changes, including mandatory registration of Cervical Cytology laboratories, a partnership agreement with UKAS, a single Professional Advisory Committee, the introduction of the new Standards to ISO 15189, the merging of the role of Chief Executive of Laboratory and EQA accreditation, and recently the mandatory enrolment of all medical laboratories. Mansel has coped with all of this with patience, understanding and good humour.

He has brought much Welsh wisdom to discussions, and not a little Welsh humour! As I am rapidly learning the job of CEO of CPA is a considerable challenge, but I have gained a great deal from watching Mansel do it with such aplomb. He was also greatly appreciated by the staff at Rutland Park and I know they will miss him as much as his professional colleagues on the PAC. He has returned to Immunology at Salford, always his first love, and we wish him and Kay a happy and somewhat more peaceful future.

The Board of CPA decided this year to merge the positions of Chairman of the Professional Advisory and Chief Executive and I have agreed to take on this task for 2 years, as a trial, to see if it works. This job is only possible because of the support of Cheryl and the staff at Sheffield and the contribution of the members of the PAC. The structure of having a representative from the medical and biomedical scientist professions for each specialty has been a great success and the committee is always being asked to cope with challenging and difficult problems.

So what else is new? With this newsletter you will find details of the latest revision to the Standards and also revised document templates. The document that I believe you will find most useful is the revised

Conduct of CPA (UK) Ltd Medical Laboratory Assessments. Can I particularly draw your attention to the sections on Mandatory Enrolment, introduced following a decision by the Departments of Health, the definitions of non-compliances and the decision making process within CPA.

However change is not finished yet by any means and CPA is about to embark on the biggest change since it started in 1991. The introduction of a group of paid assessors, who will be employees of CPA, will take place over the next year and a half. These individuals will complement the role of the professional assessors and hopefully reduce the amount of time they have to give to CPA. This change has enormous consequences for CPA and Pathology in the UK. However we still need to recruit and train more professional assessors from all sections of the professions involved in Medical Laboratories, so if you think you could do this job please look at the details on the website. To those of you who are already assessors I would like to thank you for all the time and effort you give to CPA. The system would not work without you and we greatly appreciate the contribution you make to both Laboratory and EQA accreditation.

Ken Scott Chief Executive

Professional Advisory Committee


	Histopathology	- Prof. Archie Malcolm - Mr. Pradeep Agrawal
	Haematology	- Dr. Jean-Pierre Ng - Mr. Brian Warner
	Clinical Biochemistry	- Dr. Ceridwen Coulson - Mr. Martin Nicholson
	Microbiology	- Dr. Beryl Oppenheim - Mr. Julian Jolly
	Immunology	- Dr. Gavin Spickett - Mr. Ray Russell
	Genetics	- Dr. Lorraine Gaunt
	Multidisciplinary	- Mr. John Turner
	Numerate EQA schemes (Clinical Biochemistry)	- Dr. David Goldie
	Numerate EQA schemes (Haematology)	- Mr. Stephen Boxall
	Interpretive EQA schemes (Histopathology)	- Dr. Alec Howat

	*Specialist Advisors*
	Blood Transfusion	- Mr John Revill
	Virology	- Dr. Celia Aitken
	Cytology	- Dr. Peter Smith
	H & I	- Dr. David Briggs

	*Company Officers*
	Chief Executive / PAC Chair	Dr. Ken Scott
	Executive Manager	Mrs. Cheryl Blair

CPA ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The 2005 Conference will be held on 15 March at the Royal College of Physicians in London. The cost of the Conference to delegates will be Ł155. The main theme of the Conference this year is Point of Care Testing and we will be discussing the new International Standard for Point of Care Testing. We have invited representatives from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and the National Patient Safety Agency to speak.

The afternoon session will be focussed on mandatory enrolment for accreditation and the proposed changes for the employment of full-time paid assessors for CPA. We expect there to be a great deal of interest in this content and it is advisable for delegates to book early.

Further information on the programme will be available early in the New Year.

DIARY DATES

Christmas / New Year - 2004 / 2005

CPA Central Office will be closed

from Monday 27 December 2004 to Monday 3 January 2005 inclusive

CPA Annual Conference 2005

Tuesday 15 March 2005 – Royal College of Physicians, London

CPA Two-Day Assessor Training Courses

14/15 June 2005 Birmingham

6/7 December 2005 Birmingham

CPA Update Meetings 2005

October-November 2005

Meetings will be held around the country provisionally booked for:

London	Bristol	Birmingham	Edinburgh
Glasgow	Manchester	Belfast

Dates to be confirmed and will be announced in the New Year