31 March 2026 (Tuesday) - IBMS Update

The IBMS sent their update today – you can read it by clicking here. I must admit I’m quite a critic of the IBMS but this was one of their better offerings.

I did like the article about infections in feature films… I was reminded of an episode nearly thirty years ago when I wrote to the BBC. A rather poor doctor in the TV show “Casualty”  was told that they would be lucky to end up in a path lab. The BBC replied saying that they were sorry for any offence caused, and they acknowledged that the average path lab worked is educated to postgraduate standards. But what they were striving for was dramatic effect.

Nothing has changed in the meantime…

 

24 February 2026 (Tuesday) - IBMS Update

The IBMS sent their update today. You can read it by clicking here. I must admit the only bit which was of any relevance to me was the bit about major hemorrhage protocols… and if there is one thing I would say about blood bankers (apart from how much they love meetings!) is that they provide loads of CPD through all sorts of other outlets.

10 February 2026 (Tuesday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS sent out their monthly newsletter today. You can read it by clicking here. I read it; it is the official communication of my professional body. And (as I say every month) either it or I am out of touch with the profession…

 

There was talk about the IBMS’s new president; I have heard of her before. She works in the University of Brighton (the old Brighton poly). There were several management/HR initiatives being discussed. There was talk about the “Harvey’s Gang” scheme, but that’s not really what we do on a daily basis.

And there was talk about elections to the board that runs the IBMS. I’ve done nothing but moan about the IBMS for years. Maybe I should stand for one of the positions on their council?

I suspect I’d be wasting my time. The trouble I have with the IBMS is that for all that I’m completely convinced they are going in the wrong direction, I don’t know what the right direction is.

29 January 2026 (Thursday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS sent their newsletter today. You can see it by clicking here. In the past I’ve been less than complimentary about it… and I am again today. Again there’s absolutely nothing of interest to me in it. And I’ll make the observation that back in the day (before the Internet) people only joined the IBMS because their magazine was *the* place where jobs in this line of work were advertised.

There’s only one job advert in this month’s newsletter (I counted)…

11 November 2025 (Tuesday) - IBMS Update

The IBMS sent their monthly update today. You can read it by clicking here…

Every month I make mention of the thing; every month I am very disparaging about it… and sadly there’s no change this month.

It started off by asking for nominations for its annual awards. There’s loads of us who do all sorts of sterling things every day, and singling one out for praise (in my honest opinion) lessens the efforts of everyone else.

There was then talk about a statement on quality assurance which had been issued. A vital aspect of our everyday round; such a shame the focus of our professional body isn’t on what is required but what committees will quarrel about it.

The rest followed in much the same vein… really good ideas strangled by committee.

 

I find fault with it every month… I don’t know what I want from my professional body, but it isn’t this.

14 October 2025 (Tuesday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS sent their newsletter today; you can see it by clicking here.

Sadly as is so often the case, very little of what my professional body had to say had much to do with my daily round; I actually rolled my eyes when I saw there was to be yet another country-wide review of pathology.

Now I’m not against any reviews… if they are done sensibly. But reviews is entirely the problem which has been besetting the NHS for the forty-four years I’ve been working for it.

What happens is that there is a review. Something or other is suggested. But before whatever has been suggested is fully implemented, something else is suggested. That which had been started is immediately abandoned and the something else is implemented. But before that something else is fully implemented, yet another idea is suggested.

No idea is ever given long enough to take effect. No idea is ever evaluated to see whether it was good or bad. Every idea is brought in on the whim of whichever politician is calling the shots at the time.

And I’m breaking no confidences in saying this. Just read the news and the political histories of the last few decades…

What the NHS needs is one over-arching review, and the recommendations of that review to be put in place and tested over a period of a year or so before reviewing and improving. Not reviewing and effectively starting again from scratch.

 

And the IBMS has released an update to its Good Professional Practice and Conduct in Biomedical Science. I suppose that we need such a document… but I realise I’m an old reactionary in feeling sadness that we need such a document to state the patently obvious.

30 July 2025 (Wednesday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS newsletter came out today… it was full of posts about how one might progress one’s career as a biomedical scientist which is laudable. I suppose it’s not really much good for me as all I want is a quiet life with full retirement in a few years’ time. But it made me think. There’s a lot more ways in which someone might advance these days… once you’ve actually got into this blood testing game.

 

Two days ago one of the trainees posted to Facebook that it was seven years since she graduated with a BSc in biomedical science. Seven years…

These days the route into this job seems to be deliberately made to deter people from becoming a professional blood tester. Back in the day I went from miserably failing “A” level year one to the (now bulldozed) Royal East Sussex Hospital where I worked for four days a week. On the fifth I went to Brighton (and later Bromley) Technical College. Admittedly the wages weren’t brilliant; mates working in the local abattoir got more money. But part of my wages were the fees of the course I was taking, the train fares to get there, the price of the fish and chips, cheesecake and pint of lager I had for lunch, and they gave me thirty quid a year to spend on text books too. So after four years I got my qualifications and having been working for those four years I could work unsupervised right away, and my first night shift was one week later.

 

Perhaps we might revisit the old day release scheme? Mind you, I say “we”… it’s not me who might revisit.

 

19 May 2025 (Monday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS sent their monthly update today… you can read it by clicking here.

This one was all about Biomedical Science day… how times have changed. This month we are encouraged to post individual selfies, group photos and artistic shots to the IBMS Facebook page. And there's even a video competition for which our professional body was asking for sing-alongs and comedy shorts.

 

How times change…

 

It was only fourteen years ago when I was told that posting anything at all which was work-related to social media was bringing the NHS into disrepute, and I got a formal written warning for (supposedly) doing so when I posted a selfie at six o’clock one morning with the caption that I was tired.

I know – I’ve ranted about this before… 

21 February 2025 (Friday) - Schistocyte or Fragment

And half an hour after I was so derogatory about the IBMS they sent this excellent review of schistocytes and red cell fragments.

This is the sort of thing the IBMS should be coming up with.

11 February 2025 (Tuesday) - IBMS Update

The IBMS sent its newsletter today. I’m usually rather disparaging about the IBMS. I don’t want to be. I suspect that my grievances are actually evidence of how out of touch I am with the current state of the profession…

Having admitted that…

 

IBMS congress was always seen as a chance to get paid to go on a booze up with youe current and old colleagues. The sooner that thing is moved to being entirely virtual the sooner it can shake off that reputation.

There was concerns that enterprising students might be blagging their portfolio work using AI. But there was also talk of how AI might be used to assess students’ work.

And tere was no end of support for managers but absolutely nothing that would help those doing the job do their daily round. Again.

 

12 November 2024 (Tuesday) - IBMS Update

The IBMS sent their monthly newsletter today. It was on the dull side; it usually is. I was going to write about how their focus is on people and management and science is of peripheral interest, but I say that every month don’t it?

9 October 2024 (Wednesday) - Little Bit of Politics

The IBMS have published their response to Lord Darzi’s review of the NHS. I’m reminded of my grandmother listening to a cousin jabbering on at great length loudly and ostentatiously about the failings of the committee of the local fishing club whilst doing nothing himself other than sitting on his bum and finding fault. Gran listened patiently, then announced “fine words butter no parsnips” and this is true of both what Lord Darzi has found and the IBMS’s response.

 

Lord Darzi’s report highlights the rising number of people living with multiple long-term conditions and the strain this places on hospitals. To address these challenges he says that immediate action and a strengthened diagnostic infrastructure are needed to ensure early detection, continuous monitoring, and better management of chronic diseases.

Can’t disagree there.

He goes on to say that a shift in focus from hospitals to community-based care is essential, and expanding the reach of diagnostics into community settings will enable earlier interventions and reduce pressure on hospitals.

We can’t argue with that in theory, can we?

But in practice? Lord Darzi has done reviews of the NHS before. He feels (probably rightly) that the NHS is too big, and would work better in smaller units. However at the time pathology service were reviewed by Lord Carter of Coles and he said “big is better”.

 

It’s no secret that path labs struggle to recruit. It wasn’t that long ago that an NHS Trust not a million miles away from where I live was seriously considering closing one of its three laboratories because it (probably) had enough staff to run two labs, but three was a stretch.

And look at today’s trend for pathology networks in which individual labs are reducing their test repertoire and centralizing tests for economies of scale.

 

If Lord Darzi wants diagnostic testing out in the community and a massive increase in point of care testing he needs to staff it. So he can either de-skill the workforce, and we all saw what a shambles that was (on national TV!), or he can recruit a *lot* more biomedical scientists. And he can only do that by making the job more attractive. And that will cost.

 

Having said (ranted) that, personally I’m taking whatever Lord Darzi has to say with a pinch of salt. Whatever he says simply won’t happen. At the risk of appearing to be an old reactionary, I really have seen it all before. Many times.

There will be all sorts of meetings at the Department of Health. Meetings, meetings about meetings that have happened. Meetings about meetings that are to happen. Eventually NHS Trusts will get orders from these meetings… and at that very point where something might actually happen, Lord Darzi’s ideas will be superceded by the next great NHS shake-up.

Look at what Lord Darzi is suggesting… he feels that (effectively) community-based care will call the shots in the NHS. That’s been done before (at least twice) and abandoned both times because of political ideology rather than any tangible evidence.

 

What the NHS needs is a load more money to recruit and train staff. And having recruited and trained staff it needs to be left alone for whatever current review and shake-up to take effect. Then this current review and shake-up needs to be formally reviewed and assessed, and fine-tuned on the strength of verifiable objective data, not the whim of whatever politician is in vogue at the time.

10 September 2024 (Tuesday) - Value For Money ?

 

 

The IBMS sent their newsletter today. You can read it by clicking here.
The BBTS sent their newsletter today. You can read it by clicking here.
 
Between the two of them I spend twenty-five quid a month. I don’t think I get my money’s worth.

28 July 2024 (Sunday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS sent their update today. You can read it by clicking here. One article caught my eye.  Click here to read it. Rather than taking a blood sample from a patient and sending it to a state of the art diagnostic laboratory, it is being claimed that it is far better to have some tin-pot near patient testing device on hand for an immediate result. Or is it being claimed that *some* results can be obtained from a near patient testing device far quicker than they can from a distant laboratory and in some situations this will speed up the patient’s ultimate outcome?

Which is it?

I really don’t know.

Had the article been written in English rather than some strange collection of management catch phrases then I might have had some chance of understanding.

10 July 2024 (Wednesday) - IBMS Update

The IBMS sent their newsletter for members today. You can read it by clicking here.

It made me think. Though not about that which CPD should make me think. The whole point of CPD is that I learn something new, or find that what I thought was good practice isn’t.

Over the years I’ve come to realise that I *don’t* get this from my professional body. Again the IBMS newsletter was all about what people have done and who is on what committee. This month the IBMS sent out all sorts of awards, and as I have said many times before, singling one out for praise cheapens the efforts of thousands who have done the same but gone unrecognized.

My first on-line rant about this subject was nearly eighteen years ago – click here and look up 13 September 2006, and I ranted along similar lines on 4 January 2007.

 

My thoughts right now are that it costs me sixteen quid a month to be a member of the IBMS and now that they don’t offer professional indemnity insurance I really have to ask what I get for my money.

There’s reflection, eh?

 

22 May 2024 (Wednesday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS sent their update today. Part of it was their response to the infected blood scandal. You can read it here.

The whole infected blood scandal thing winds me up. I’m in no way belittling what happened, but is “scandal” the right word for it? I can distinctly remember a lecture in the second year of my ONC at Brighton Technical College when our lecturer (my old boss Paul Cabban) was telling us about the UK blood product situation. He made it quite clear that it was well known and accepted that the UK was not able to meet its own needs for blood products. There was no secret about where the USA was sourcing its blood products. It was known that there was a risk of contracting unidentified (at the time) diseases from these transfusions. We were told that transfusions of imported blood products (or any transfusions come to that) were supposedly a last-ditch treatment and that those receiving them were to be made aware of this.

I also went to a seminar (also in Brighton) about the first case of HIV in the UK outside of London where the same information was openly discussed.

This was in 1982…

The same information was openly acknowledged when I was doing HNC at Bromley Technical College (1983-85)

 

Wasn’t this information made clear to everyone? Was there really a cover-up? To the best of my knowledge there was never any secrecy about it.

14 May 2024 (Tuesday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS sent its newsletter today. You can see it by clicking here.
There was talk about two young ladies who have been announced as biomedical scientist of the year, and of a shortlist for other awards. Without wishing to undermine anyone in any way, I’ll make the observation that (not including my at-least-weekly) night shifts I was called out of bed at least twice a week for twenty years, and that demands of the workplace meant that I missed my daughter’s first eight birthday parties. No one even said thank you. And I didn’t really do much that thousands of others didn’t do. But singling out one for praise undermines all the others.
There was talk of the IBMS’s involvement in the London Pride march. Much as I support the rainbow community (with family and friends in it) perhaps the IBMS might concentrate on things more relevant to its core business.
There was talk about the proposed raise in HCPC fees… they go up regardless of how much anyone might whinge.
And as for the Harvey’s Gang lab tours… how has the IBMS managed to take over something which surely must be the job of a paediatric nurse?
 
I suppose it is all about priorities. Mine are clearly sadly at odds with those of my professional body.

9 April 2024 (Tuesday) - IBMS Newsletter

Yesterday I mentioned my constantly finding fault with the IBMS as a so-called CPD activity. This morning their newsletter arrived in my in-box… and I’m finding fault with them again. You can see the newsletter by clicking here.

 

There’s some good stuff in there… but I forced myself to read the entire newsletter before writing this. The trouble is that it starts with political nonsense and giving out awards that most people have lost interest before they get to the relevant stuff.

I would write to the IBMS about it… I have done so in the past to no avail.

20 March 2024 (Wednesday) - IBMS Update

Two days ago I had a serious whinge about the newsletter from the office of the chief scientific officer.

But I take it all back. That was perfection compared to what arrived in my in-box today from my professional body. Here’s the latest missive from the IBMS. It really is of absolutely no interest or relevance to me. Now that the IBMS don’t offer professional indemnity cover I find myself asking what I get for the sixteen quid I give them every month.

Two days ago I wrote: ”I really don’t want to appear negative but more and more my CPD is an ongoing tirade about how little use various people’s efforts are to me. Very self-centred of me, I know…”

However I feel I’m justified in whinging when I am paying good money for it.

 

12 March 2024 (Tuesday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS Newsletter appeared in my in-box this morning. You can read it by clicking here.

It is widely said that in this life things go full-circle. I suspect that in thirty years’ time a future issue of the IBMS gazette will feature articles on the latest advances on blood testing analysers and reagent kits, and tutorials on cell morphology and interpretations of haemoglobinopathy traces. And the olduns of that era (today’s trainees) will hark back to the halcyon days of 2024 when the IBMS focused on what mattered to them; committees and awards and strange catchphrases.