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| Director of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Laboratory, Claude Lewis, receiving his certificate from representatives of BNSI.?? |
Four labs were awarded today for their successful completion of a proficiency testing programme, which will assist them in establishing quality standards for their institutions.
The participating labs for 2010 were Chemscreen Laboratory Services Inc., the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Laboratory, Spectrol Medical Laboratories Ltd. and BCPS Cytology and Pathology.?? Representatives were on hand to receive their certificates of completion at the Barbados National Standard Institution headquarters, Culloden Road, St. Michael.
Chief Technical Officer at the BNSI, Hadyn Rhynd, congratulated the participants and praised their devotion to providing quality services to the public.
"You have demonstrated your commitment to ensuring that your laboratories’ results are reliable and accurate…You’re dealing with [people’s] health and lives and your commitment to the programme indicates your [dedication] to quality," he said.
Offering details about the programme, Mr. Rhynd stated: "You have reference material being produced by a company in Canada…samples are sent to the four participating labs, with the same concentrations…each lab does its analysis then submit their reports through the BNSI to the laboratory in Canada, where they can see how far away from the actual value the results are. So it’s a good benchmark to see if their equipment is working well, if personnel are following the right procedures and, generally, to see how reliable the results are."
BNSI, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, partnered with Canadian company Digital PT for the programme, which is now in its third year.?? Proficiency testing has been regarded as an efficient quality control tool and is used as a means to assess labs which intend to seek accreditation.
For more information on proficiency testing, contact the BNSI at 426-3870.??