Birmingham Quality (WEQAL) is a self-financing unit within University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and is committed to providing high quality external quality assessment (EQA) services to laboratories within the UK and world-wide.

The department has been a WHO Collaborating Centre since 1976. In this role, WEQAL operates the International EQAS for Clinical Chemistry, and a regional scheme for the Middle East. The terms of reference also include advisory, education and training roles.

The main activity is the provision of UK National EQA Scheme (UK NEQAS) services in clinical chemistry as part of the UK NEQAS network. The UK NEQAS for Clinical Chemistry (Organiser, Dr David Bullock) provides 2-weekly distributions to 750 participants, and the UK NEQASs for Thyroid Hormones (Organiser, Finlay MacKenzie) and for Steroid Hormones (Organiser, Dr Jonathan Middle) each provide monthly distributions to 400-500 participants. These are complemented by a range of 24 other UK NEQAS Schemes and Surveys, covering a wide range of investigations including blood lead, neonatal screening and specific proteins. UK NEQAS participation is primarily from the UK and Ireland, but with an increasing international element.

All 17 of WEQAL's full UK NEQAS schemes are now unconditionally accredited by Clinical Pathology Accreditation (UK) Ltd, a professional organisation to which the UK Government has devolved responsibility for oversight of EQA services in the UK. Inspections are two-yearly. The CPA accreditation process includes annual reapplication and self-audit, with 2-yearly inspections. Wolfson EQA Laboratory was first inspected in September 1997, reinspected in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2007 & 2008, and our next inspection is expected during 2010.

WEQAL's interests in the quality of point of care (decentralised, extra-laboratory) testing include operation of national Schemes for urine dipsticks and for cholesterol & other lipid assays. The latter and the UK NEQAS for Lipid Investigations are complemented by WEQAL's status as one of the organising centres for the UK NICAMS initiative for cholesterol standardisation.

All specimens and reports for these activities are processed at WEQAL, and specimens for most are produced in-house. In collaboration with the Wolfson Computer Laboratory, WEQAL develops computer software (the Wolfson Core System) which is used by a wide range of UK NEQAS centres across the disciplines of laboratory medicine, and which is being developed for international placement. A web-based system for online results entry and report downloading over the Internet was initiated in 2000, and is also available to participants in the IEQAS for Clinical Chemistry.

The range of WEQAL's activities is continuing to expand, not only through initiation of new Schemes in an active research and development programme, part-funded by research grants, but also centralisation of existing schemes. The UK NEQAS for Steroid Hormones was relocated from Cardiff in 1996, and other rationalisation initiatives are consolidating WEQAL's status as the main UK NEQAS centre for clinical chemistry.

The objectives of both IEQAS and UK NEQAS are primarily educational, with a substantial advisory element, and WEQAL staff work with the National Quality Assurance Advisory Panel to assure professional standards are maintained across the UK. This is complemented by publications and by courses and training in quality assurance in partnership with WHO, British Council, IFCC and IAEA. Dr Bullock is a member of the IFCC Committee on Analytical Quality (EMD C-AQ).