265 - Lord Carter of Coles; who is he? Is he important for Laboratory Medicine also in Italy?
Autor(s): Romolo M. Dorizzi
Issue: RIMeL - IJLaM, Vol. 2, N. 4, 2006 (MAF Servizi srl ed.)
Patrick Robert Carter, Baron Carter of Coles, was born in 1946 and set up in 1985 Westminster Heath Clinic which is today an important health institution in UK.
Carter sold this venture in 1999 but remained very active
especially in assurances, health and Information Technology fields. He became life peer as Baron Carter
of Coles, of Westmill in the County of Hertfordshire
in 2004 on the advice of Prime Minister Tony Blair. He has been and continues to be a troubleshooter for UK government and served and is serving as chairman of several very sensitive committees and review panels (Commonwealth Games 2002, English National Stadium, National Athletics, Payroll Services, Criminal Records Bureau, Offender Management and London 2012 Ltd). In September 2005 Health Minister Lord Warner launched an independent review of NHS pathology services to be chaired by Lord Carter of Coles; the task was to identify the scope for modernisation and improvement of clinical laboratories. The term of reference was very clear “To advise Ministers, in the context of current resource constraints, on the timeliness, reliability, capacity and efficiency of current pathology services in England, benchmarked against international standards and the feasibility of and benefits arising from wide-scale service reconfiguration, innovation and modernisation and involvement of the independent sector”. Professor Chris Price, a leading laboratorian in UK, and Mr. Marcus Robinson, an experienced civil servant, entered in the panel. They investigated the use of technology, how to bring services closer to patients and how to involve the independent sector soliciting laboratorians in UK and
abroad for suggestions, comments and opinions and
completed their review within August 2006 ....