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Sign up today Sign up today Sign up todayWe are really pleased to announce that Birmingham Quality has entered into a partnership with UK NEQAS Cardiac Markers and UK NEQAS Guildford Peptides which not only improves resilience for all our combined services, but gives the opportunity for improved harmonisation and expansion within Clinical Chemistry. This includes more targeted cross-centre working.
The top-level take home message is that we will be offering ISO/IEC 17043:2023 Accredited Services for the Schemes below from April 2027 and, prior to that, will be offering the opportunity for Participants to accrue some back data.
If you are a Roche user, we are taking this opportunity to move users to the new Roche method classification. More information can be found in this document.
We know that you will have a lot of questions and we have answered what we can below. If you have a specific question relating to the services that we will be offering, that isn't answered here, please contact Birmingham Quality on birminghamquality@uhb.nhs.uk.
Please select the Scheme Name in the table below for more information on each Scheme.
To register for these services, please use the online registration form. A user guide for completing the form can be found here.
| Scheme | Material | Number of Specimens/Distribution | Scoring System |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peptide Hormones I (LH, FSH, Prolactin, GH and AMH) |
Liquid human serum Predominantly endogenous concentrations |
3 specimens / 11 distributions per year Individual tubes for:
|
ABC of EQA |
| Peptide Hormones II (PTH, ACTH and Calcitonin) |
Lyophilised EDTA plasma Endogenous and Spiked |
3 specimens / 11 distributions per year Individual tubes for:
|
ABC of EQA |
| AFP and hCG (AFP and hCG) |
Liquid human serum Predominantly endogenous concentrations |
3 specimens / 11 distributions per year Individual tubes for:
|
ABC of EQA |
| Liver Fibrosis Markers (PIIINP, Hyaluronic Acid, TIMP-1 and ELF Score) |
Liquid human serum Endogenous and Spiked |
3 specimens / 11 distributions per year | ABC of EQA |
| Pre-eclampsia Markers (PLGF, sFlt-1 and sFlt-1/PLGF ratio) |
Liquid human serum Endogenous and Spiked |
3 specimens / 11 distributions per year | ABC of EQA |
| Maternal Serum Screening First Trimester (Free BHCG and PAPP-A) Maternal Serum Screening Second Trimester and NTD (AFP) (AFP, Total/Intact hCG, Unconjugated Oestriol and Inhibin A) |
Liquid human serum Endogenous and Spiked |
3 specimens / 11 distributions per year Individual tubes for:
|
ABC of EQA and Chance Statistics |
| Urine Pregnancy Testing (Urine hCG) |
Liquid urine Endogenous and Spiked |
2 specimens / 11 distributions per year Distributed at the same time as Urine Dipsticks specimens |
ABC POCT System |
Yes, these Schemes have UK NEQAS designation and will be operated by Birmingham Quality, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
No – but we would highly recommend that you do so that you have B and C rolling-time statistics available in April 2027 and you will be included at re-registration in February 2027. These EQA services will be free from January 2027 up to and including March 2027. There will be a fee from April 2027.
We know that this is all a bit 'clunky', but our online Re-registration service has always been restricted to re-registering for any Laboratory that has a live participation with us. If any new Laboratory ID wants to join, this is classed as a 'Registration' and has a different set of requirements for us to set up in the back office.
You will be able to sign up at re-registration in February 2027 if you are already a Birmingham Quality participant and you use our Online Results and Reports Service.
We will set up the system such that even if you have joined from January 2027, you must actively select these to be included in 2027-2028. We will not assume that you will progress from the preliminary stage to the full service; you must tell us.
However, if you are new to Birmingham Quality and so have not been automatically included in the online re-registration (February 2027) and so haven't opted to join the preliminary stage but now do want to join the live service from April 2027, you must contact us directly. At this late stage there may be delays as we will be processing the large number of regular re-registrations. The smoothest way is to enrol via the registration form before it goes live in January 2027.
Yes, please complete the registration form where we will ask for details to allow for dispatch of specimens. A user guide for completing the form can be found here.
We will make contact with you either in February 2027 through our re-registration system or earlier by direct email (using the contact details provided on the registration form) to ask for finance information.
The 2027/28 pricelist has not yet been finalised, but you will benefit from the discounts applied to two or more instruments. Also, pricing structures will be comparable to existing Schemes offered by Birmingham Quality.
All new services are accredited to ISO/IEC 17043:2023 and our Schedule of Accreditation (7860) will shortly be updated on the UKAS website.
All Schemes use the ABC of EQA scoring system like other Schemes operated by Birmingham Quality, UK NEQAS Cardiac Markers and UK NEQAS Guildford Peptides.
Yes, the report structure is the same as existing reports from Birmingham Quality; however, example reports are available on request if you are new to the services offered by Birmingham Quality. Please contact Birmingham Quality on birminghamquality@uhb.nhs.uk with the subject line New Services.
Yes, we will be handling Units in the same way as we do for all current Birmingham Quality Schemes. If you report results in Unit X your Report will be in Unit X, even if all the results have been transformed into Unit Y for the purposes of collating data. Where necessary, we may create separate 'measurands' to reflect what is happening in the real world.
While we know that some analytes/measurands there are different standards to which methods have been aligned but most Laboratories, and certainly most clinicians, will only be aware that the numbers are in U/L and not that some methods are aligned to U/L old standard and some to U/L new standard. We will endeavour to make things clear in our Reports.
