Those of us whose default outdoor garment has become a heavy raincoat may not have been surprised to read the UK Met Office’s recently published data, showing that England and Wales have just experienced the wettest 12 months since 1766. It is a tangible and very worrying sign of our changing climate. Accordingly, our theme in this Bulletin issue is climate and the environment. Our feature articles explore how these relate to health and pathology and how we can work more sustainably and do our part to address the climate crisis.

At the end of last year, the College hosted NHS England’s Pathology Transformation and Green NHS symposium, ‘How Green Is Your Lab?’, bringing together pathology network leaders and sustainability experts; in addition, our International Pathology Day event in November had a theme of Planetary Health. I am delighted that some of the excellent speakers from those 2 events have contributed feature articles for this issue, exploring subjects ranging from the expanding range of infectious disease to ideas for relatively easy-to-implement practical changes we can all make in our services. To find out more and read the articles, go to the April 2024 Bulletin webpage.

I am sure many of you also have some great examples of efforts to improve sustainability in your own services; we’re looking forward to reading about some of them in your nominations for this year’s RCPath Achievement Awards, which have a newly-introduced Sustainability Award category. We will report on the winners once they are announced.

In other College news, we are delighted to have launched a new Research Fellowship Grant scheme, which provides support to both postgraduate and undergraduate research projects. The College’s new Research Committee Chair, Professor Keith Hunter, explains more about this development. Meanwhile, the Pathology Portal goes from strength to strength, having been nominated for a Health Service Journal Digital Literacy, Education and Upskilling Award.

You may already be aware of the recent changes to the General Medical Council’s Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR) process, which is now known as the Portfolio Pathway. There are some important differences – Jenny Maginley, College Training Manager, provides an update.

A new ISO standard for medical laboratories, ISO 15189:2022, will soon become active. Alyson Bryant and Albert Mifsud of the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) explain what the new standard means for laboratory services and how you can help implement it by becoming a UKAS assessor.

Our small but dedicated International team continues its great work supporting colleagues across the world, with the launch of its latest project as part of the Global Health Workforce Programme. The team will be collaborating with medical educational institutions in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, and with the Association for Laboratory Medicine, to support chemical pathology training and service provision.

As is often said, the College is its people, and in this issue we introduce you to some of the new elected honorary officers and 2 of our Clinical Directors. We also have appreciations of 2 giants of 20^th century pathology, Professor Vincent Marks and Professor Sir Anthony Epstein.

I do hope you will all find something of interest to you in this issue and would love to hear your feedback – so please do get in touch with your suggestions and ideas.

Return to April 2024 Bulletin homepage

Read next

Introduction to climate change, lab sustainability and pathology

27 March 2024

Climate change and pathology – impact and actions

26 March 2024

How Green Is Your Lab? NHS England Pathology Transformation and Greener NHS symposium

19 March 2024

Member only content

General Medical Council introduces the Portfolio Pathway

15 March 2024