King’s College Hospital puts pathology services into public-private partnership

An NHS foundation trust in London has formed an alliance with an existing public-private partnership to become the United Kingdom’s largest single provider of pathology services.

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust announced on 21 September that its pathology services, called KingsPath, would be consolidating with GSTS Pathology, the existing joint venture between Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust and the commercial company Serco Group.

Serco already has several public sector contracts in the health, education, transport, science, and defence sectors, and its healthcare provision includes out of hours services, occupational health, and facilities management. KingsPath has one of the UK’s largest portfolios of specialist pathology tests.

The new tripartite arrangement, which starts on 1 October, is expected to carry out more than 10 million tests a year. It will provide pathology services for both London trusts, Bedford Hospital NHS Trust, and several other NHS and independent sector organisations. …