Consultant Histopathologist

The Department is housed in a self-contained unit opposite the outpatient department. It comprises separate histopathology, cytopathology and immunohistology laboratories; secretarial office, 5 consultant offices, 1 senior MLSO office and tea-room. The mortuary is close-by on the ground floor of the main hospital block and has undergone major updating with an increased storage facility, expanding from 50 standard fridges, 16 plus size and 4 freezer spaces to 65 standards, 20 plus size and 9 freezer spaces and a refitted postmortem room with 2 new tables. (New in 2017) All consultants have their own offices with modern microscopes, video capture and VDU display, together with a networked PC. There is a large multiheaded teaching/consultation microscope in the main laboratory A wide range of immunohistochemically stains are performed using 2 Benchmark Ultra analysers, with a maximum of 180 slides/day (if 3 'runs', however normally only 2 are required per day).These machines are also capable of performing in situ hybridisation, currently only used routinely for immunoglobulin light chains and EBV. Immunofluorescence is used for skin biopsies on request. Molecular biological studies on an increasing number of tumour samples are performed in Bristol, Birmingham and Exeter. The laboratory computer system (part of the integrated hospital system) uses Winpath (Clinisys), but will be moving to EPIC/Beaker in December 2025.