Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals have comprehensive tissue governance systems in place, overseen by the following groups and people.
Our Board - Human Tissue Authority (HTA) licence holder
Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals are part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Our Trust Board is the HTA licence holder and therefore has overall responsibility, in conjunction with the designated individual named on each licence, for ensuring suitable management of tissue.
Governance committees
Tissue governance is applicable to the following board-level committees:
- Governance and quality committee, which ensures quality of care and patient safety
- Research management committee, which oversees all research
Tissue governance steering group
The tissue governance steering group is a cross-site multi-professional group at the heart of our tissue governance. The group was established in 2005 to oversee the development and implementation of systems for governing tissue, to ensure with our allied research partner, Imperial College London, we are meeting legal and regulatory requirements.
Tissue governance manager
Our tissue governance manager works as part of our quality and safety team to oversee high-level compliance with the HTA’s licensing requirements and tissue governance frameworks. The tissue governance manager works to ensure that relevant statutory and regulatory requirements across all licensable sectors are met, and issues are resolved in a timely manner. The tissue governance manager provides training and support to all staff conducting licensable activities.
HTA licensing
The Human Tissue Act sets out a requirement for a DI to take on statutory responsibility for securing that:
- suitable practices are used in undertaking the licensed activity
- the other persons who work under the licence are suitable
- the conditions of the licence are complied with
Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals designated individuals are:
- Research - Prof Michael Polkey
- Human application – Mr Sunil Bhudia
Persons designated assist the designated individuals in fulfilling their statutory responsibility, by deputising for them and overseeing practices in a local area. The persons designated help ensure our governance system is complied with across all licensed sites. In this role, they are able to provide local support and information to staff operating on their premises.