Care Group Manager - Pathology

Care Group Manager - Pathology

The closing date is 02 February 2026

Here at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, we are proud to provide expert, compassionate care for our local population. We are ranked as the third in the country for research, embedding education and training across the organisation. Our main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals on the south coast employing over 8,700 staff.

Our patients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our hospital stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for getting it right for patients, colleagues, and our community, you will find a home at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

Portsmouth Pathology is a large and modern diagnostics service with 300 staff working from a purpose-built facility on the Queen Alexandra Hospital site. It provides a broad range of pathology services, from high throughput analysers to very specialist, low volume testing. Total workload figures for the service per annum are approximately 2.5 million blood samples, 400,000 microbiology investigations and 45,000 tissue biopsies.

This is delivered by a dedicated team of scientific, technical, admin and clinical staff. Core services operate 24 hours a day, every day, supporting clinical decision making in the busy Queen Alexandra hospital and the surrounding community. It also includes a busy mortuary service. The breadth and depth of the scientific services, coupled with high demand, makes this a dynamic and exciting service to lead.

As the Care Group Manager for Pathology at PHU, you will provide senior operational leadership to the pathology services including the mortuary.

Working in a triumvirate partnership with the Clinical Director and Senior Biomedical Scientist, you will lead the strategic and financial planning for the Care Group. You will be responsible for navigating the transition towards integration with Isle of Wight pathology services and the development of the Southern Counties Pathology Network business case into proposed new model across the network. You will provide direct leadership to the Business Manager, whilst supporting the Heads of Service, ensuring that laboratory supports RTT and cancer targets and the further digitisation of pathology services.

Technological Strategy: Lead the development of business cases for capital investment in laboratory automation and digital pathology.

Operational Excellence: Maintain a rigorous focus on national access standards and laboratory turnaround times (TATs).

Workforce Innovation: Develop a resilient workforce strategy that addresses the national shortage of HCPC registered scientists through creative "grow your own" initiatives.

Closing date for applications is Monday 2nd February

Interviews will take place on Monday 9th February

• Educated to Degree level or equivalent qualification/experience.
• Post Graduate Qualification or equivalent.
• Evidence of continuing professional development including management studies to masters level or above or equivalent experience.

• Significant experience working on both strategic and operational matters.
• Significant NHS/Public sector experience and knowledge and understanding of the NHS system reform policy and other key policy drivers.
• Demonstrable success in building, leading, motivating and developing multi-disciplinary teams as highly effective people manager.
• Experience of leadership of complex operational change/project management while also developing and maintaining high standards of quality.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust