In anticipation of National Pathology week, which starts tomorrow, reporter NEIL SKINNER had his eyes opened, his mind expanded, and his stomach turned at an intriguing behind-the-scenes tour of Watford General Hospital.

Pathology is, perhaps, the most misunderstood of all medical disciplines.

In recent years it has proved increasingly popular with television producers on both sides of the Atlantic, with shows such as CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) and Silent Witnesses adding to the popular, and rather macabre, myth that pathology and pathologists are merely concerned with the dead.

The truth, however, couldn’t be more different. Pathology is merely the study of disease; a collection of some 14 different disciplines combined to diagnose illnesses, match appropriate treatments, and, in less than five percent of cases, determine the cause of a person’s death.

Indeed, it is arguably the single most important department in the entire National Health Service, responsible for 70 per cent of all diagnoses.

The second annual National Pathology Week, organised by the Royal College of Pathologists aims to explain precisely what pathologists do do, what they definitely don’t do and why, unlike in many television shows, results are not always available instantly.

At Watford General Hospital some 252 highly trained technicians and 18 clinical consultants work to test and diagnose more than 3,000 samples each day, a daunting operation controlled by a bewildering system of computers and barcodes – all ensuring the right patients get the right results.

Hidden from public view in one the hospital’s less salubrious buildings, they work to diagnose anything from mild viral and sexual infections to life-shattering diseases like cancer.

“We are the vital link in a chain that tells patients exactly what is wrong with them,” explains Dr Tony Maddox, who laughs aloud when asked to draw comparisons with the glossy, fictional world portrayed on TV – usually by impossibly glamorous staff in surroundings which wouldn’t be out of place in a science fiction film.

“It’s not quite like that here,” he explains, “but what we do here is just as important. Without pathology departments the health service just couldn’t function.”

As if to prove the point I am introduced to the (thankfully) fictional Mrs XY, a 55-year-old patent apparently suffering from chest pain, lethargy and shortness of breath – symptoms not uncommon amongst the age group.

In a dizzying, at times nauseating hour-long tour, a series of blood and even lung fluid samples are subjected to a range of manual and automated tests, some taking seconds, others taking a matter of days.

“That’s another problem we face,” explains department head Dr Prema Singh, “that people think results can come back in minutes, but in many cases we have to grow an incubate cultures over a couple of days before we can give a result. Everything is done as quickly as possible.

In the case of Mrs XY, however, her results would have taken at least two to three days to accurately collate, with samples spun and 3,000 rpm in a centrifuge, examined under microscopes, passed through state of the art machinery, and even cultivated in an incubator.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and the £11million per year pathology department her doctor would then have been made aware of the following: an infection of the heart’s valves and linings, a condition that would explain her symptoms.

Specialist treatment would than have been organised with cardiac specialists and powerful antibiotics (again tested for suitability by pathologists) used to kill off the infection.

Crucially, a possibly fatal condition would have been quickly diagnosed.

To learn more about the role of the pathology department why not visit its public exhibition tomorrow, in the Terrace Meeting Room, next to the Spice of Life restaurant, between 10am and 4 pm.