Diagnostics Immunology
Fri 2 Oct 2026 08:30-16:40
Holiday Inn Leicester, 5 CPD Hours

Strengthening immunology services through demand management, quality and clinical collaboration

Specially created for immunology laboratory managers, service leads, clinical scientists, biomedical scientists and quality professionals, this one-day networking forum will bring you together with teams from across the UK to explore how to manage rising demand, strengthen quality and support sustainable service delivery under increasing pressure.

This interactive forum will focus on allergy demand management, immunofluorescence automation, UKAS readiness, QC and EQA evidence, MDT collaboration, workforce sustainability and specialist testing. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to benchmark your service and take away practical ideas for local improvement.

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Immunology National Networking Forum 2026
Face-to-face 5 hours £49+VAT

Expand your knowledge

5 hours Continuing Professional Development: what you will learn

Attend this essential conference to gain clear, practical insight you can take back and apply to your immunology service. Key learning outcomes include:

  • Managing rising demand across high-pressure immunology testing areas such as allergy and immunofluorescence
  • Strengthening UKAS readiness by clarifying assessment criteria and developing strong QC and EQA approaches
  • Improving MDT collaboration between laboratory teams, clinicians, primary care and secondary care
  • Supporting sustainable service delivery under workforce, resource and workload pressure
  • Enhancing clinical utility in myositis testing and minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring

Network and benchmark

Bringing the immunology community together

Over the last five years, this dedicated immunology networking event has brought together laboratory managers, clinical scientists, biomedical scientists, quality leads and service teams. This is your opportunity to share practical learning and real-world service developments. By attending, you will:

  • Learn directly from expert speakers and case studies, gaining practical insights into managing demand across allergy, immunofluorescence and specialist immunology testing while maintaining clinical utility, quality and turnaround times
  • Take part in interactive discussions with peers, exploring shared challenges around rising workload, workforce pressures, MDT collaboration and sustaining services under increasing demand
  • Benchmark your service against immunology laboratories across the UK, understanding how others are approaching UKAS readiness, QC, EQA and evidence for assessment
  • Build valuable professional connections, creating opportunities to continue sharing best practice, discuss common challenges and learn from colleagues developing future testing pathways

“An incredibly useful conference. All the presentations including discussions were engaging and provided insightful knowledge that I will be using in my role and in my department going forward”

Staying Ahead in the Evolution of Immunology Service Delivery 2025, Birmingham

Thank you to the exhibitors

Invitation to sponsor

SBK Healthcare National Conferences are designed to enable immunology providers to support healthcare professionals

If you would like to sponsor this forum, please email Vanessa Jarman or call Vanessa on 01732 897788 to find out about all the engagement and branding opportunities available in the full sponsorship package.

8:30
Registration and networking opportunity
9:00
Introduction, instructions and chair’s opening remarks
Dr Sameer Bahal, Consultant Clinical Immunologist and Allergist, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Demand management
9:10
Managing allergy demand with clinically valuable immunology testing
  • Reviewing when testing adds clinical utility and where tests may be driven by historic practice or unclear clinical questions
  • Improving allergy request quality through better clinical history, triage and clinician involvement
  • What time, staffing and financial savings can better demand management produce?
Dr Adrian Heaps, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Department, Immunology & Immunogenetics, North Bristol NHS Trust
9:40
Responding to rising immunofluorescence demand through automation
  • Reviewing the impact of increasing fluorescence requests on laboratory capacity and service delivery
  • How can automated workflows help maintain quality and turnaround times with limited staffing?
  • Case study insight: Wolverhampton’s early experience of using workstation automation to manage rising immunofluorescence demand
Dr Heather Clark, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Clinical Lead, Department of Immunology, Black Country Pathology Services
10:10
Questions and answers with your speakers
10:20
Interactive discussion: Managing demand across high-pressure immunology testing areas
  • Which areas of testing are creating the most demand pressure in your service?
  • How are you managing high-volume testing as requests continue to grow?
  • Are there faster or more standardised testing pathways that could help services manage demand while maintaining clinical utility?
10:40
Sponsored presentation opportunity
  • If you are an immunology laboratory provider and would like to be part of this day, and present to this audience, please contact vanessa.jarman@sbk-healthcare.co.uk for further information
10:50
Questions and answers with your sponsor
11:00
Refreshments and networking break
UKAS readiness and quality control
11:20
Strengthening UKAS readiness by understanding assessment expectations
  • Sharing current UKAS healthcare accreditation activity and areas of growth
  • Highlighting common assessment findings and how laboratories have responded
  • Supporting ISO 15189 compliance for immunology testing across specialist and wider blood sciences settings
Suzanne Gascoigne-Barnett, Senior Assessment Manager, UKAS
11:50
Building confidence in QC, EQA and UKAS evidence for immunology testing
  • Sharing practical QC approaches for qualitative and quantitative immunology testing
  • Managing areas of testing where EQA is limited or unavailable
  • Demonstrating confidence in QC strategy, risk assessment and evidence ahead of UKAS assessment
Denise Hennessey, Quality Manager, Protein Reference Unit and Immunology Laboratory, South West London Pathology
12:20
Questions and answers with your speakers
12:30
Refreshments and networking lunch
Service sustainability
1:30
Improving MDT collaboration between laboratories and clinicians
  • Strengthening communication between laboratory teams, primary care and secondary care
  • Reducing unnecessary or poorly targeted testing through clearer requesting pathways and clinical input
  • Creating more clinical discussion around how immunology tests are selected, interpreted and used in patient care
Dr Patrick Yong, Consultant Immunologist, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
2:00
Sustaining immunology services under workforce, resource and workload pressure
  • Understanding the impact of staffing gaps, recruitment freezes and limited resources
  • Managing rising workload while maintaining quality, turnaround times and clinical value
  • Sharing practical approaches to workforce planning, prioritisation and making the case for additional resource
Dean Tazzyman, Discipline Lead Specialist Blood Sciences, South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Pathology
2:30
Questions and answers with your speakers
2:40
Interactive discussion: Improving collaboration and sustaining services under pressure
  • Do you currently operate within an MDT or MDT-style model, and how are laboratory teams involved?
  • How are clinical discussions and decisions fed back to the wider laboratory team?
  • How are services managing workforce and workload pressures while maintaining quality and turnaround times?
3:00
Refreshments and networking break
Clinical utility in specialist immunology testing
3:20
Improving clinical utility in myositis testing
  • Understanding when myositis testing adds clinical value as requests continue to increase
  • Interpreting immunoblot results alongside immunofluorescence patterns to give clinicians a clearer picture
  • Exploring whether myositis testing is targeting the right assays and antigens for what clinicians need to know
Dr Harsha Gunawardena, Consultant Rheumatologist, North Bristol NHS Trust
3:50
Questions and answers with your speaker
Emerging technology and advanced monitoring
4:00
Royal Marsden case study: introducing mass spectrometry for multiple myeloma monitoring
  • Understanding how mass spectrometry can support more sensitive blood-based monitoring for multiple myeloma patients
  • Exploring how new analyser technology is being introduced into laboratory and clinical pathways
  • Considering the impact on relapse detection, personalised care and reducing reliance on invasive follow-up testing
Dr Robyn Shea, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Director of Blood Sciences, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
4:30
Questions and answers with your speaker
4:40
Chair’s closing remarks and close of conference

Your confirmed speaker line-up:

Dr Sameer Bahal
Job Title:
Consultant Clinical Immunologist and Allergist
Organisation
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Biography

Dr Bahal studied medicine in London, graduating in 2011. He worked as a Junior Doctor in London and Birmingham and started Immunology and Allergy training in 2015. He was later appointed as a consultant in Leicester Royal Infirmary in October 2023. 
Dr Patrick Yong
Job Title:
Consultant Immunologist
Organisation
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
Biography
Dr Harsha Gunawardena
Job Title:
Consultant Rheumatologist
Organisation
North Bristol NHS Trust
Biography

Dr Harsha Gunawardena (MBChB MRCP UK PhD), is a Consultant Rheumatologist and Divisional Clinical Director Neurosciences and Musculoskeletal sciences Division at North Bristol NHS Trust. He co-runs a dedicated CTD vasculitis service alongside the Bristol-Interstitial Lung Disease regional service. He has a clinical academic interest in particular myositis, CTD-ILD and vasculitis. His PhD was on myositis syndromes, and this work was the first to describe several novel autoantibody markers. He has published on myositis overlap syndromes, autoantibodies, CTD-ILD reviews and guidelines. He is a lead member of UK Myositis network, Myositis UK patient charity scientific committee, and on the British Society of Rheumatology Myositis and ILD Guidelines Group. 
Dr Adrian Heaps
Job Title:
Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Department, Immunology & Immunogenetics
Organisation
North Bristol NHS Trust
Biography
Denise Hennessey
Job Title:
Quality Manager, Protein Reference Unit and Immunology Laboratory
Organisation
South West London Pathology
Biography
Dr Heather Clark
Job Title:
Consultant Clinical Scientist and Clinical Lead, Department of Immunology
Organisation
Black Country Pathology Services
Biography
Dr Robyn Shea
Job Title:
Consultant Clinical Scientist and Director of Blood Sciences
Organisation
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Biography

Dr Robyn Shea is a consultant clinical biochemist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. She obtained FRCPath in 2015 and her PhD in 2016 from the University of Birmingham looking at remote testing for biochemistry tests such as Vitamin D and CRP. Robyn continued her interest in remote sample testing at The Royal Marsden and the Institute for Cancer Research. This work helped her to collaborate with the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and various colleagues across the Trust to obtain the EXENT (the Binding Site). The Blood Sciences department at The Royal Marsden were the first clinical laboratory in the UK to go live with the EXENT in March 2026.
Dean Tazzyman
Job Title:
Discipline Lead Specialist Blood Sciences
Organisation
South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Pathology
Biography
Suzanne Gascoigne-Barnett
Job Title:
Senior Assessment Manager
Organisation
UKAS
Biography

Pricing structure

  • £49+VAT each for NHS professionals 
  • £699+VAT each for commercial places
  • Commercial companies are invited to sponsor this day, please email Vanessa Jarman for further details

Venue details

Venue name: Holiday Inn, Leicester
Address: 129 St. Nicholas Circle, Leicester, LE1 5LX
Tel: 0116 482 1900

Holiday Inn® Leicester hotel is a 10-minute taxi ride (or 20-minute walk) from Leicester train station. The M1 motorway is just a 15-minute drive away, and the Highcross Rooftop car park is located a short walk from the hotel.

Parking

There is no hotel owned car park, however there are two nearby car parks, as follows:

Highcross Rooftop car park is a 7-minute walk to the hotel through Jubilee Square. The car park postcode is LE1 4AN. Tickets can be validated at hotel reception for a discounted price of £6 for 24 hours. Parking is then payable at the machines in the car park. This rate is based on a single exit. The height limit for this car park is 1.98 metres. For directions to Highcross Rooftop please click here.

The NCP St Nicholas Circle car park is located opposite the Holiday Inn Leicester. Please click here for further information on rates and the app. 

What happens once you have made your booking?

Once you have booked your place, SBK Healthcare will correspond with you using the email address you provided at the time of booking. Within one week of the online training taking place, you will be sent final details of the course including the full agenda, programme timings and your Zoom joining instructions. This email will include a joining link that can be used to access the course.


If you have not received your email two days before your event, do check your junk folder then contact SBK Healthcare on 01732 897788.


Practice sessions are available. If you would like to attend a Zoom practice session before the event takes place, please let us know by emailing bookings@sbk-healthcare.co.uk. You will have the opportunity to meet an SBK Healthcare staff member who will ensure you are able to access Zoom, that your camera and microphone work and you are fully set-up for the day. This is optional but if you do wish to attend, please use the same device that you plan to use on the day.


On the day, when registration starts, you will be able to join the course by entering a waiting room when there may be a short wait before you are let into the conference room. The forum will include screen breaks, as well as topic themed interactive sessions which may include Polls or take place in the breakout rooms.


Click here to view the specially created 5-minute video that will walk you through how to get the most out of attending your SBK Healthcare interactive online forum.

Reservations

If your funding has not yet been secured or you would like to hold your place with no obligation, you can reserve your place with us. Please email the reservations team at SBK Healthcare with your details:

  • Booking contact: name, job title, department, email and telephone number
  • Event(s) to reserve for: title and date
  • Delegate details (for each delegate): name, job title, department, email and telephone number
  • Organisation details: name and address

Alternatively you can make a confirmed booking by emailing the above information to the bookings team 

Terms and conditions

Certification of attendance

A certificate for Continuing Professional Development will be given to every fully registered participant who completes the course, as a record of your continuing professional training and development.

Registration fees

You will be sent an instant payment option or invoice on registration. Your payment is required in advance. If your fee has not been received prior to the event, and you are not able to provide a PO or proof of payment, you will be asked to make a credit or debit card payment on the day.

Modify registration

To let us know if your details are not correct when you have already registered, please email the bookings team.

Cancellations and substitutions

A full refund of fees will be made only for cancellations received within the first 48 hours of the booking being made. Notice of cancellation must be received in writing by emailing the bookings team at SBK Healthcare. Should you need to cancel your registration after this date, the registration fee remains payable in its entirety although a substitution will be accepted and conference documentation will be provided. Substitution attendees for delegates unable to attend after registering are acceptable at any time.

Event changes

It may be necessary for reasons beyond the control of the conference organisers to alter the content, speakers or the timing of the programme. We will endeavour to keep you abreast of such changes but any unavoidable change to the format will not constitute a reason to refund the fee. Should the event be postponed, we will endeavour to reschedule the event. If, for reasons beyond the control of the conference organiser, the event is cancelled, a full refund will be made. We do not accept any liability for any incurred costs resulting from a postponement or cancellation.

Privacy notice

To view the details on how your data is being collected and used, please view our Privacy policy

Expected attendees

This networking forum is designed for professionals involved in the management, delivery and quality assurance of immunology services across the NHS, including:

  • Immunology Laboratory Managers
  • Immunology Service Managers 
  • Operational Leads
  • Clinical Scientists
  • Biomedical Scientists 
  • Quality Managers and Quality Leads
  • Immunology Clinical Leads
  • Consultant Immunologists

Past attendee feedback

Across our annual immunology events, the focus is always on practical learning, open discussion and shared experience that reflects the pressures facing services now. Delegates value hearing from other laboratories, discussing current challenges and taking away ideas they can use in their own departments. Hear what past attendees have taken from our immunology forums:

“Very enjoyable, flowed really well and plenty of opportunity to discuss topics with peers throughout the day. Very interactive.”

Staying Ahead in the Evolution of Immunology Service Delivery 2025, Birmingham

“Great source for ideas of good practice.”

Staying Ahead in the Evolution of Immunology Service Delivery 2025, Birmingham

“An excellent opportunity to network and learn from other people’s experiences.”

Staying Ahead in the Evolution of Immunology Service Delivery 2025, Birmingham

“Fantastic talks and networking, very well organised.”

Staying Ahead in the Evolution of Immunology Service Delivery 2025, Birmingham

“Learned from different labs’ perspectives, innovation, networking and sharing experiences.”

Staying Ahead in the Evolution of Immunology Service Delivery 2025, Birmingham

“Interesting and interactive. I came home with a list of action points and questions and met some new people.”

Immunology National Networking Forum 2024, Birmingham

“Good speaker content, very good for networking and discussing laboratory challenges.”

Immunology National Networking Forum 2024, Birmingham

“Good ideas gained for implementation into local practice.”

Immunology National Networking Forum 2024, Birmingham

View further comments on SBK Healthcare events on Trust Pilot.

Exhibitors

  

Why sponsor?

Our role at SBK Healthcare is to bring industry together with healthcare professionals so that you can educate and inform your audience. These trail-blazing forums offer dedicated presentation, Q&A, networking and discussion time, each sponsor will be full immersed into the event and able to effectively engage with your NHS audience.

Your event, managed by us

SBK Healthcare also provides in-house forums. Working closely with you as the client we can research, produce, market and deliver the conference or online forum that best suits the audience and meets your goals.

Reach out today

If you would like more information on our sponsorship options an in-house forum or if you wish to discuss your needs and what solutions may be appropriate for your business, please contact: 

Vanessa Jarman 
Contact: 01732 897788 
Email: vanessa.jarman@sbk-healthcare.co.uk