Spotlight on: Davis Nwaka, new Microbiology Department Service Director
Davis’ vision is to develop the Microbiology department as a centre of excellence.
“I want to continue to attract the best people and get the best equipment,” said the newly-appointed Service Director.
“My aim is to further improve on our services to always deliver prompt, accurate and reliable results to help clinicians manage patients.
“I know it’s a big vision but I’m starting from a good position thanks to the work of my predecessor, Reham Soliman, as well as the commitment of our colleagues in the department.”
Davis has been a consultant for the past seven years and has held several leadership roles previously.
“Microbiology is involved in every aspect of care,” he said. “From Infection Prevention & Control to screening patients for flu, CDI, MRSA or Covid-19. We work with colleagues on the wards several times each day, advising on suspected infections, helping clinicians make a diagnosis and offering our expertise to support clinical decisions from transplants to knee replacements.
“The department is made up of consultants in microbiology, virology and infectious diseases, with clinical scientists, biomedical scientists and medical laboratory assistants all working together to help our clinical colleagues.
“One of my targets is to recruit more consultants in medical microbiology and virology to get to our required capacity.
“Our service is so in demand and we need to be able to keep delivering to our high standards.”
Davis is also the Clinical Lead for East Coast Pathology Network (ECPN), a collaboration between the Eastern Pathology Alliance, ESNEFT Pathology and West Suffolk Hospital Pathology.
“The benefit of being part of this network is that we can all improve our services through collaboration,” he said.
“For example, some services are run in certain hospitals and not in others, we collaborate to bridge this gap as well as the staffing shortage that is affecting pathology nationwide.
“Collaboration will help us to negotiate better contracts with platform providers and suppliers in pathology. It will also help us serve patients living in neighbouring areas around the ECPN.
“I am really looking forward to applying myself in this role and, with the co-operation of colleagues, making our department a centre of excellence.”