LSTM’s Clinical Diagnostic Parasitology Laboratory (CDPL) has recently undergone its first assessment by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).
The lab has been CPA (Clinical Pathology Accreditation) accredited since 2012. Accreditation is the industry standard and gives customers the assurance that the laboratory is providing quality results and a standardised, reliable referral service. The transition to UKAS was a large undertaking for the CDPL team and included a move working to ISO International Standards.
The team in the CDPL examine around 4000 clinical samples annually, referred from NHS trusts and private clinics throughout the UK as well as those throughout Europe. It can provide diagnostic testing for a full range of human parasitic infections including some of those that LSTM specialises in such as malaria, filariasis, schistosomiasis, strongyloides and African trypanosomiasis.
The assessment was a great success with the assessors congratulating the laboratory on their hard work to achieve the transition from CPA standards to ISO standards. Pending clearance of a small number of nonconformities it has been recommended that the clinical diagnostic parasitology laboratory is UKAS accredited for all diagnostic tests placed on scope of practice.
Jayne Jones, CDPL Laboratory Manager, said: “I am very proud of this achievement and would like to thank the CDPL team for their support during this transition for the unit. Maintaining accreditation is difficult when working in a specialised non-NHS laboratory, the transition to UKAS accreditation and working to ISO standards brought new challenges and the team worked hard to achieve this new level of accreditation.”