In this section
The Division of Laboratory Medicine has a well-established quality management system. Our laboratories are all registered with UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service). Each department in the Division is assessed for accreditation by UKAS at regular intervals for ISO accreditation.
A quality management system is a collection of processes focused on achieving objectives to meet customer requirements. It is an organisational structure, with policies, procedures and processes and has a continuous improvement cycle with sustainability and transparency initiatives and customer satisfaction. The standard used is the ISO 15189:2012 Medical Laboratories – requirements for quality and competence.
Our Quality Policy describes our overarching aims for our service. The Quality Policy is reviewed annually.
Suggestions, complaints and concerns
We welcome any suggestion that will improve our services. It is very important that you let us know of your concerns or dissatisfaction as soon as possible. This will allow us to quickly put things right for you. You can do this by asking to speak to the Laboratory Manager in any department you are dealing with. Usually they can help resolve matters for you.
However, if you feel that you are not able to speak directly to a member of staff or Department about your concern, you can contact PALS (Patient & Liaison Service) who will arrange to see you as quickly as possible. You can also email or telephone the Divisional team.
Quality assurance
To improve quality control, ensure best practice and gain ISO accreditation clinical laboratories must have an effective Quality Assurance (QA) programme.
The object of QA is to ensure that the right result is provided on the right specimen at the right time, and interpreted according to the right reference data.
This process requires a combination of Internal Quality Control (IQC) of the everyday analytical process and participation in External Quality Assessment (EQA) programmes, where overall accuracy and comparability of results between centres may be determined.
Quality assurance schemes are available for most analytical processes and the DLM participates in numerous schemes including External Quality Assessment from UK NEQAS which offers participation to the UK and overseas laboratories.
UK NEQAS schemes conform to high standards of professionalism, impartiality, clinical relevance and strict financial accountability across all disciplines and specialities, so that all concerned with the quality of laboratory investigations may have confidence in the service provided.
(Last reviewed April 2021)