The web-based UK NEQAS Pre- and Post-analytical Quality Monitoring Service represents an additional major recent addition to UK NEQAS services. The service has been established on a cross-disciplinary basis, including initially Blood Sciences (chemistry, haematology and immunology) and Microbiology laboratories, but for future extension to other disciplines.

 

To date two pilot stages have been conducted with 60 invited laboratories, including 11 selected indicators covering requesting, specimen quality and reporting, which revealed that many labs have difficulty in extracting the relevant information, especially that related to reporting. We believe that the opportunity for external comparison will constitute a stimulus to laboratories to collate and monitor such information - though the causes of many errors are outside the laboratory, they waste resources and impair effective patient care.

 

UK NEQAS is extending the pilot studies further and wishes to invite wider participation from participants in the UK and Ireland. As in the earlier studies performance data will not be attributable to participant laboratories though summary reports (which include Sigma metrics) will be provided.

 

Please email [log in to unmask]" target="_blank">[log in to unmask], including the relevant contact names and email addresses for your laboratory, if you are interested in participating.  You may register as an individual department or discipline, as a grouping such as blood sciences, as a combined laboratory medicine service or even as a network.  You may have more than one registration per site.

 

Although we will welcome registrations at any time, you should contact us by Friday 19 June 2015 to guarantee inclusion in the next exercise.

 

We hope you find this development of interest, and look forward to hearing from many of you.  Please note that this invitation is being sent out through several routes, so you and your colleagues may receive multiple copies.

 

David Bullock and Barbara De la Salle

 

UK NEQAS