Quality Programmes, Certification and Accreditation

The Division strives to provide high clinical laboratory standards by engaging in well-accepted quality assurance activities. The Division’s Laboratory Quality Committee, consisting of members from all disciplines in the department, meets regularly and works closely together with each other and with clients to solve problems and to ensure a high standard of laboratory service. The quality and appropriateness of services are reviewed regularly in order to pursue opportunities to improve patient care, customer satisfaction and resolve identified problems. The aim is for clients to be confident that the test results and reports generated are accurate, reliable and clinically relevant and reported in a timely manner.

The Division’s laboratories are accredited or certified by the following locally/ internationally recognised accreditation or certification programmes:

The laboratories participate in proficiency testing, maintain and regularly review standard operating procedures and quality control procedures, conduct on-going personnel training and competency assessment, review specimen handling, test methodologies, test reporting and safety, among others. Feedback given by clients is important to help us improve our services and respond to their needs. Our laboratories participate in several well-established, locally and internationally recognised proficiency testing programmes. These programmes are useful to gauge our performance and standard against other laboratories which participate in the programmes. They are also useful from an educational point of view, and are important sources of information and clinical material. We have been obtaining good results for these proficiency testing programmes which cover the full spectrum of tests that are offered by our laboratories. The external quality programmes that are used for proficiency testing are listed in the table.

External Quality Assessment Programmes

Blood Bank Laboratory

Clinical Biochemistry

Cytogenetics Laboratory

Cytology

Haematology Laboratory

Histopathology

Bacteriology

Central Tuberculosis Laboratory

Mycobacteriology 

Immunology & Serology

Molecular Laboratory

Disciplines	Programme Title	Frequency
Molecular Diagnostics	CAP Chlamydia/GC by Nucleic Acid Amplification	3/year
	CAP Clostridium difficile	2/year
	CAP HIV-1 Viral Load	3/year
	CAP HLA-B27 Typing	2/year
	CAP Human Papillomavirus	3/year
	CAP Microsatellite Instability	2/year
	CAP Nucleic Acid Amplification, Respiratory Pathogens (ADV, EnV/HRV, MPV, Flu A/B, PIV1,2,3, RSV, BoV, CorV, PIV4, CP, MP, BP, BPP, LP)	3/year
	CAP Nucleic Acid Amplification, Viruses (PanEV, EBV, CMV, HSV, HHV6, HHV8, B19, VZV, BKV)	2/year
	CAP Solid Tumor - EGFR	2/year
	​CAP Nucleic Acid Testing	​3/year
	​CAP Hepatitis B Viral Load	​3/year
	​CAP Hepatitis C Viral Load	​3/year
	​CAP SARS-COV-2	​3/year
	​CAP Meningitis/Encephalitis Panel	​3/year
	​CAP Pharmacogenetics (CYP2C19)	​2/year
	​CAP HLA Disease Association – Drug Risk (HLA-B*15:02)	​2/year
	​CAP Joint Infection Panel	​3/year
	​CAP Gastrointestinal Panel, Global	​3/year
	QCMD Epstein-Barr Virus DNA	2/year
	QCMD HBV Drug Resistance	2/year
	QCMD HCV Genotyping	2/year
	QCMD Human Cytomegalovirus DNA	2/year
	QCMD Human Herpes Virus 6 DNA	2/year
	QCMD BK Virus DNA	2/year
	QCMD Toxoplasma gondii	2/year
	QCMD MERS Coronavirus	2/year
	QCMD Zika Virus	2/year
	​QCMD Aspergillus spp. DNA	​2/year
	​QCMD HEV RNA	​2/year
	​QCMD HIV-1 (DNA)	​2/year
	​QCMD HIV-2	​2/year
	​QCMD Poxviruses	​2/year
	​QCMD Candida auris	​2/year
	RCPA Molecular Alphavirus/Flavivirus	2/year
	RCPA Molecular Avian Influenza	3/year
	​RCPA Molecular GI Viral Pathogens	​2/year
	​RCPA Molecular GI Bacterial Pathogens	​2/year
	​RCPA Molecular GI Parasite Pathogens	​2/year

Virology

Satellite Laboratories

Translational Pathology Centre

Abbreviations