10Tests on biopsy material — AGroup P5 (Tissue Pathology) and Group P6 (Cytology)

10 Tests on biopsy material — AGroup P5 (Tissue Pathology) and Group P6 (Cytology)

(1) For the purposes of items in Group P5 (Tissue Pathology):

(a) biopsy material means all tissue (other than a bone marrow biopsy) received by an approved pathology practitioner from an operation, or a group of operations, performed on a patient at the same time; and

(i) a pathology service that comprises the examination of biopsy material is rendered under any of those items; and

(ii) a further pathology service mentioned in any of those items is also rendered using that biopsy material;

those pathology services are taken to be 1 pathology service; and

(c) cytology means microscopic examination of 1 or more stained preparations of cells separated naturally or artificially from their normal environment by methods recognised as adequate to demonstrate their structure to a degree sufficient to enable an opinion to be formed about whether they are likely to be normal, abnormal but benign, or abnormal and malignant. In accordance with customary laboratory practice examination of a blood film and a bone marrow aspirate is excluded from this definition.

(2) For the purposes of Groups P5 and P6 of the Pathology Services Table, services in Group P6 include any services described in Group P5 on the material submitted for a test in Group P6.

(3) For the purposes of subrule 10. (2), any sample submitted for cytology from which a cell block is prepared does not qualify for a Group P5 item.