Our Microbiology and Histopathology laboratories have achieved a huge milestone in the laboratory accreditation process. They have been assessed as compliant against new, rigorous ISO:15189 standards.
These standards examine every step of the process in processing a clinical sample, such as a blood culture or a lymph node for histology.
The detail of the standards gets down to the real nitty gritty, such as demonstrating in lab conditions that our stop clocks accurately measure 30 seconds as 30 seconds, and not 28 or 35!
By achieving ISO:15189 accreditation standards, we can be even more confident in the accuracy of our results.
Dr Gavin Boyd said "Months of hard work and dedication has gone into achieving these standards involving all members of the laboratory team. Alison Milner, Quality Manager in Pathology has driven the process and has been central to our laboratories success in achieving these standards: thank you Alison and well done all!”
Alison added "The laboratories at CHFT have a long history of accreditation to CPA (Clinical Pathology Accreditation) and we considered ourselves old hat at this until we got the news that, and along with all other labs up and down the country, we had to move over to be assessed to 15189 international standard by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service.
"The new standard is far more rigorous in nature for the laboratories both in terms of depth and frequency of assessment. There has been a huge amount of work undertaken by a team of very dedicated staff despite ever increasing pressures on time. The new standard is very much patient focused and assesses the whole patient sample journey rather than being restricted to the time the samples are in the laboratory.
"Although a very daunting prospect at the start, I believe it has introduced yet more quality to pathology service and it has been a pleasure to lead staff through the process, seeing the transition from sheer panic to acceptance of the task ahead through to the final grants off accreditation.
"The Blood Sciences department are next through the hoop in January - so if you see a few fraught faces on the staff around Christmas time you’ll understand why".
