Mrs. Katy Heaney MSc FRCPath FAHCS
Consultant Clinical Scientist, Specialty lead Point of Care Testing
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services
Mrs. Katy Heaney
Association for Laboratory Medicine, United Kingdom
Katy has been working in the NHS and its services for 20 years in Clinical Biochemistry and Point of Care Testing (POCT). Katy is the Consultant Specialty lead for POCT for Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services, covering 5 NHS Trusts, with 6 acute medical sites and multiple community services. The service is the only multi-Trust UKAS accredited POCT service in the UK under ISO 15189:2022 and was awarded Outstanding Healthcare Science Service of the year by NHS England’s Chief Scientific Officer at the Advancing Healthcare Awards in 2025.
Katy is the Clinical Director for Qpoint a dedicated ISO accredited POCT External Quality assessment scheme. Qpoint has over 10,000 participants across 7 schemes and produces samples for POCT devices to test across the UK to monitor the quality of results produced for patients. Katy chairs the southeast region NHS England Point of care group and has been a key contributor to NHS England POCT guidance for virtual wards and hospital at home services.
During the pandemic Katy was seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care, then later UKHSA, Operational Supplies team as the Point of care workflow programme lead, with the primary aim of providing technical and scientific leadership in the deployment of rapid covid testing into NHS Emergency departments.
In 2024-25 Katy was seconded to Chief Healthcare Scientist for Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust with responsibility for executive representation of Healthcare science services at the Trust and the Integrated Care System.
Katy is considered a leading expert in Point of care testing in the UK; influencing policy, research and development and healthcare strategy. Katy is focused on producing the highest quality patient outcomes using well governed POCT in a cost effective and clinically appropriate process.
