Specialist Biomedical Scientist - Histology

Job summary

The Cellular Pathology department at Princess Alexandra Hospital is looking to appoint a 1 year fixed term Specialist Biomedical Scientist. You will work within a dynamic team of 15 qualified staff supported by 12 Medical Laboratory Assistants and Associate Practitioners.

Cellular Pathology is divided into areas for which all staff are rotated on a weekly basis. Training is provided and competencies for all areas are assessed before any work is carried out unsupervised. All areas are divided into qualified and unqualified tasks.

Histology is divided into:

• Specimen Reception, Dissection, Processing and Embedding
• Microtomy (staining and QC)
• Special stains and exports
• Immunohistochemistry
• HER2 Breast FISH
• Cytology is divided into:
• Non-gynae preparation
• Non-gynae QC and reporting

Areas of interest and specialisms are encouraged, and development tailored accordingly.

The laboratory holds an HTA license, is ISO15189:2012 accredited and holds training status for both pre and post-registration portfolios.

Main duties of the job

• Receipt and booking in of all specimen types.
• Recognising and trouble shooting any labelling errors.
• Specimen dissection for an extended range of specimens.
• Specimen processing and embedding.
• Specimen microtomy of a range of tissue types.
• Staining and quality control of sections including routine and special stains.
• Performing frozen sections under intra-operative conditions.
• Performing immunohistochemistry using automated stainers, diluting of antibodies and making up reagents. Carrying out quality control and maintaining control stocks.
• Taking part in external quality assurance schemes.
• Ensuring maintenance of the Quality Management System using Qpulse.
• Preparing a range of specimens in non-gynae and observing all Health and safety rules and regulations.
• Allocating of specimens to Consultants for reporting using the Royal College reporting points system.

About us

Our Organisation

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) provides a full range of general acute, outpatient and diagnostic services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop's Stortford, and St Margaret's Hospital in Epping.

We employ 3,500 staff and serve a local population of around 350,000 people living in west Essex and east Hertfordshire, centred on the M11 corridor and the towns of Harlow, Bishop's Stortford and Epping. Our extended catchment area incorporates a population of up to 500,000 and includes the areas of Hoddesdon, Cheshunt and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.

Our Values

The Princess Alexandra Promise to our patients as identified by our 3 values which will contribute to improving our patient experiences:

Patient at heart - Always holding the patient and their wellbeing at the centre of our thoughts and efforts

Everyday excellence - Sharing and celebrating our successes, being honest when we get it wrong, giving us the ability to learn from both

Creative collaboration - Knowing strength comes from diversity, we combine our experiences, skills and talents, working together to find new and better ways to care

The Trust believes in investing in all our staff and rewarding high standards of care whilst building for excellence and in return we expect our staff to uphold the Trust values to the highest level.