Working in the North West Region

Hospitals

The Manchester Royal Infirmary is the principal teaching hospital of the University of Manchester. The Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospital NHS Trust is the sixth largest trust in Great Britain and functions as a tertiary referral centre. The histopathology school in Manchester is linked with the Manchester Cytology Centre, St. Mary's Hospital, Royal Eye Hospital, Manchester Dental School and the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital in Pendlebury.

The ST1 school is based in the Clinical Sciences Building1 (CSB1) and the histopathology laboratory is fully equipped for a range of activities, including immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, electron microscopy and image analysis. Videomicroscopy with closed circuit TV monitors is used for training. All consultants have double-headed microscopes for teaching purposes and several multi-headed microscopes are available for larger group teaching. There is a large multi-headed microscope in the dedicated SHO's room. Each SHO has their own microscope and computer.

The department operates a sub-specialist reporting system, involving 15 consultant histopathologists with one vacancy. In addition to the 8 proposed trainees, the department also hosts 5 higher SpRs from the North West Regional Scheme, which currently has in excess of 40 posts.

The Osteoarticular Pathology service for Central Manchester is currently provided by Professor Freemont within the Stopford Building of the Medical School. It is hoped this service will transfer to the Histopathology Department in CSB1 within the medium term.  Professor Freemont is a member of the sarcoma MDT, which meets in Central Manchester and includes clinicians from Christie, Wythenshawe and Oswestry Hospitals. 

Surgical Pathology

The department provides training opportunities in a wide range of surgical pathology, with the exceptions of breast, neuropathology and paediatric pathology (see below). Particular areas of interest include; gynaecological pathology, gastrointestinal and liver pathology, pulmonary pathology, renal and urological pathology, osteoarticular pathology, haematopathology,oral pathology, dermatopathology and ophthalmic pathology. Specialist reporting is routine in all these areas. SHOs will be shown how to do surgical trimming and will be well supervised Trainees will rotate round the various specialist teams to ensure exposure to all major specimen types with an introduction to sub-specialisation. Multidisciplinary team meetings are held on a weekly basis to cover many of the oncological specialties delivered on site. SHOs, contingent on progress, will be encouraged to present cases, at the discretion of their supervising consultant, at these meetings. These meetings are powerful learning tools, especially in clinico/radiological/pathological correlation. Secondment to departments providing breast pathology (South Manchester), neuropathology (Salford) and paediatric and neonatal pathology (RMCH) is incorporated in the training programme for all Year 1 trainees. The latter two disciplines are not given long periods, since they are a less important part of the year 1 curriculum.

Cytopathology

The Manchester Cytology Centre is in a newly completed building, immediately adjacent to the Histopathology Department, with which it has close professional links. It provides a population-based screening programme for the Greater Manchester area, as well as diagnostic gynaecological and non-gynaecological cytology for the Central Manchester Trust. It is the major training centre for the North West Region and runs regular courses for cytoscreeners and medical staff, including a leading role in liquid-based cytology training.

Autopsy Pathology

The mortuary at MRI functions as a public mortuary for the City of Manchester with a busy, varied workload of 1200 autopsies per annum. Coroner's autopsies are performed on a contractual basis for the Manchester City Coroner and trainees are encouraged to undertake coroner's autopsies under close consultant supervision. Trainees will be encouraged to accompany consultants to the Coroner's Court for an inquest. The Home Office pathologists for the Manchester area have close links with the MRI mortuary. Opportunities for demonstration of autopsy findings to clinicians and undergraduates are available.

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