COMMENTARY
Do the RCPath-published workload guidelines underestimate the work rate achievable in subspecialty practice in cellular pathology?
Department of Pathology, Cellular Pathology, Coventry and Warwickshire Pathology Services, UK
Correspondence to:
Dr S A Sanders, Department of Pathology, South Warwickshire General Hospitals, Warwick CV34 5BW, UK; scott.sanders@swh.nhs.uk
Accepted 19 December 2008
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
HIGHER ACHIEVABLE WORK RATES? MORE EVIDENCE FOR THE BENEFITS OF SPECIALISATION
The current Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) workload guidelines1 represent a big step forward in assessing pathologist workload in cellular pathology by reflecting individual specimen complexity rather than crude specimen numbers.2 The "new" approach is to allocate specimen points and to translate points into time, enabling workloads to be defined in line with a time-based consultant contract. The subspecialty matrices published include an assessment of cut-up and microscopy time, and give an assessment of both pathologist and laboratory input.
In this issue, Horne et al3 (see page 435) provide evidence that "experienced" dermatopathologists are capable of workloads far in excess of that recommended by the RCPath workload matrix for dermatopathology.1 The authors comment, "It is intuitive that specialist dermatopathologists can handle higher skin pathology workloads than general surgical pathologists without such subspecialty expertise." Three dermatopathologists, in their time–motion study, averaged 43 RCPath points/h compared with a proposed reasonable
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