Notes from the Council meeting held on Wednesday 31 January 2007 at 12 Coldbath Square, London, EC1.
Dr J H F Smith (Chair), Mr N Dudding, Dr A Herbert, Dr M Desai, Ms A Springall, Mr A Wilson (IBMS), Dr D Hemming, Dr N Anderson, Mrs M Symonds, Dr A Chandra, Dr K Denton, Dr E Duvall, Dr M Young, Dr T Giles, Dr D Rana, Dr R Clarke, Mr M Howard (NAC), Ms J Bingham, Ms K Hawke, Ms G Woods
Discussions had taken place with the webmaster regarding a formal contract and he had suggested a monthly fee of £200. Dr Anderson reported that at present costs averaged out at around £180 per month and so this did not seem unreasonable. The webmaster also felt that it would be relatively straightforward to set up a host site of our own rather than run it through his website.
The next step would be for a formal SLA / contract to be drawn up and agreed.
Dr Desai reported that HTA had accepted the suggested modifications and the application had been approved. There would be a meeting in early February to plan the appointment of a trial co-ordinator and discuss potential trial sites. The proposed timeline was 18 months.
Council discussed the recently circulated proposed final draft.
Several members of Council had comments and the draft was reviewed page by page. It was agreed that subject to the agreed modifications the document would be forwarded to the original BSCC Terminology 2002 moderators, members of the dyskaryosis working party not currently serving on Council, the NHSCSP and relevant professional bodies with a deadline of the end of April for receipt of comments. The final draft would then be signed off at the June Council meeting and submitted for publication in Cytopathology.
Dr Chandra explained that both the FNA and the Exfoliative cytology documents had been discussed at the RCPath Cytopathology Sub-Committee and returned with a few comments. The most important were a request that the documents included more detail on the impact of one stop clinics, on workload and highlight what was considered minimal acceptable and best practice. Dr Denton commented that the timescale was particularly important since Dr Tim Helliwell had already spoken to her about the possibility of using the COPs as a basis for the College HRGs.
It was agreed that Dr Chandra would circulate both codes to Dr Giles who would review them and work with Dr Chandra to address the specific points raised above.
Dr Giles agreed to conclude this review by the end of February and then submit the final document for publication in Cytopathology.
Dr Smith detailed the content of a letter to Mrs Patnick indicating that while TriPath recommended the use of bi-directional screening of SurePath preparations during training it was not necessary beyond the training period. In the light of this advice Dr Smith had suggested to Mrs Patnick that this matter was now closed and whilst he had not received a formal reply she had informally indicated her agreement.
Dr Anderson reported that the Society had made a financial loss for 2006 due largely to the Edinburgh ASM. Valuable lessons had been learnt however and these would be incorporated into the Cardiff ASM.
Dr Anderson also advised that Ellis Atkins had been appointed as the new auditors. They had promised that early accounts would be available for the June Council meeting which would give extra time for presentation of the formal accounts to the AGM in September.
Dr Desai confirmed that the 2006 ASM had made a loss much of it due to an excessive accommodation penalty. Dr Desai outlined some of the lessons learned and how such problems would be minimised for Cardiff. It was felt that Cardiff had a strong local committee and already Jane McCrea had managed to secure a number of unique and extra trade supporters.
Dr Desai discussed the programme for Cardiff and reported that an extra cervical cytology tutorial would be held on Tuesday as would a sponsored lunchtime symposium. The AGM had been moved and would now be held on Tuesday afternoon.
Dr Desai also confirmed that the PCO had been charged with looking at alternative and financially viable venues for ASMs after 2008.
Dr Smith reported that Dr Levine had tended her resignation as chair of the Education Committee. Dr Denton had agreed to take on this role until election of a successor at the AGM.
One issue discussed at the last Education Committee had been the Advanced Specialist Diploma in Cervical Cytopathology (ASD) and the very disappointing pass rate.
In particular there was concern over transparency of the exam structure and marking scheme; the broad nature of the syllabus and whether it was fit for purpose; and, the availability of suitable mentors.
Dr Desai felt that since the RCPath had recently introduced more transparency in their examination structure, together with formal training for examiners, this might be considered by the Conjoint Board for the ASD. Several members Council currently sat on the Conjoint board and it was pointed out that new guidance would be published by the RCPath shortly. There was general discussion around these points and it was agreed that Council members would pass on their comments to Dr Denton who would take this forward.
The Publishers Report was tabled and Dr Smith drew members’ attention to the summary on page 1. It was noted that unfortunately both readership and the impact factor were down on last year.
Dr Smith reported that as indicated in the post Council note of the last minutes the Society did not own the title Cytopathology and therefore the offer from Portland Press could not be pursued.
There had been three new applications for membership: Mr Andrew Ash, Dr Jonathan Bury and Mr Andrew Dalton. All were approved by Council.
Dr J H F Smith was appointed as replacement for Eileen Hewer.
Dr Thomas Giles was the only nomination and will replace Dr Mutch.
Dr Giles reported that he had co-ordinated comments from Council and returned them by the deadline. Although the RCPath had received thanks for their comments Dr Giles reported that had not yet received any acknowledgement of their arrival.
Subsequently Dr Chandra had been approached by Sarah Johnson for input into the HRGs for the College. Dr Giles had agreed to take this on but had not replied as yet. Dr Chandra felt that this could be tied in with Dr Giles review of the COPs.
Action: Dr Giles
Dr Herbert asked that Council members read the document carefully and wondered whether we should make a formal response before its introduction in April.
Dr Denton outlined that the plan was to roll it out nationally before June this year. This would be co-ordinated by QA teams and there would be an educational day for QA representatives on the 19th February, followed by a further one for interested parties on the 21st March.
In the discussion that followed members felt that the major concern was the workload for the Hospital Based Programme Co-ordinators. Dr Desai felt that funding should also have been made available for secretarial support.
Dr Duvall was concerned about the need to audit cases of CIN 3. Dr Herbert felt that this might allow useful comparisons however and didn’t feel that the document indicated a need to actually undertake slide reviews.
Dr Smith wondered what educational value there was in reviewing conventional smears once laboratories had converted to LBC.
Dr Herbert reported that Dr Young, Joanna Bradbury and she were reviewing the document for local purposes. Once they had concluded this review she would draft a response to the National Team. She would circulate this around Council for comment prior to forwarding it to the NHSCSP.
Action: Dr Herbert
Dr Smith asked members for comments on the previously circulated proposal for the audit of cervical cytology specimens showing glandular abnormality. There was broad agreement that the protocol was a little confused. It was agreed that Dr Smith would write to Mr Cullimore broadly welcoming the proposal but requesting a clearer protocol before the BSCC could offer formal support. Dr Anderson questioned whether there might be a problem with ethical approval and felt that we should seek clarification on whether this had been sought.
Action: Dr Smith
Dr Herbert reported that she had been amazed at how short the consultation period had been on the Care Pathways in Mesothelioma rapid effusion clinics. Dr Denton was certain that this document had not been seen by the RCPath. Dr Herbert would try and find out exactly what had happened.
Action: Dr Herbert
Dr Herbert reported that the European guidelines on QA would be published during 2008 and recommend that terminology in Europe should be compatible with the Bethesda System.
Ms Symonds reported that Glaxo-Smith-Kline (GSK) had approached the BSCC with a view to purchasing the smear taker training videos and booklets. There had been initial interest in buying several thousand but at the moment they had bought just one copy and were worried about compatibility with various IT systems. If the purchase was agreed it could realise up to £10,000 for the Society and Ms Symonds agreed to monitor the situation carefully.
Action: Ms Symonds
Ms Symonds also outlined that she had been informally representing the BSCC as the cytotechnologist representative to the EACC over many years. She now wished to step down and asked the BSCC to seek a replacement. The nominated person must be a cytotechnologist. The post was unfunded. It was agreed to try and find a suitable nomination.
Action: Mr Dudding
Dr Desai drew the attention of Council to recent guidance from the NHSCSP indicating to screening officers that the presence of infections should no longer be reported in the letters to women. Members reported that they would continue to report infections as part of the laboratory report.
Dr Desai reminded Council that we had previously discussed the merits of publishing the terminology document as a stand alone booklet and CD- Rom. Dr Denton felt that we would have to check if there were any copyright issues and agreed to speak to Dr Kocjan to seek clarification.
Action: Dr Denton
6 June 2007, 10.00 am at IBMS
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