Trust’s Pathology Departments achieve national accreditation

East Sussex Healthcare Trust’s Pathology Departments have achieved United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accreditation, a mark of quality that can be used to identify safe, efficient and patient-focused services.

Shinal Amin, Principal Biomedical Scientist said: “Our pathology laboratories play a vital role in the diagnostic aspects of patient care. Achieving accreditation is a major achievement for our departments and is recognition of a lot of hard work that has gone into being awarded this accreditation. Thanks go to all the laboratory team who have enabled this to happen. It is a visible reflection of the excellent service we offer patients.”

To achieve UKAS accreditation the standards and working practices of the Pathology Departments were assessed. This included specifics on the collection of patient samples, the interpretation of test results, acceptable turnaround times, how testing is provided in a medical emergency, and the lab’s role in the education and training of health care staff.