NHS Improvement has outlined plans to create 29 pathology networks across England in a bid to save £200m – or nine per cent of the total spend – as part of work to implement recommendations set out by Lord Carter.
The regulator is asking trusts to develop a business case for how they will achieve their share of the efficiencies via networking and, if necessary, outsourcing.
NHSI wants to link the 105 individual hospital pathology services together through the centres, to create networks which will each serve populations of between 1.5 million and 2 million.
Full story in The HSJ, 11 September 2017
