Quality
The West Midlands Regional Genetics Laboratory is a UKAS Accredited Medical Laboratory number 8176. The scope of our accreditation can be seen on the UKAS website.
This laboratory is accredited in accordance with the recognised International Standard ISO 15189. This accreditation demonstrates technical competence for a defined scope and the operation of a medical laboratory quality management system (refer to joint ISO-ILAC-IAF communiqué dated November 2021).
Quality control
Accreditation with UKAS implies the department has a quality management system and participates in appropriate internal quality control and external quality assessment schemes. UKAS assesses against BS EN ISO15189:2012. The department is a member of voluntary quality assessment schemes within the UK NEQAS consortium and EMQN which monitors our analytical and interpretative performance and ensures that our clients and patients get a high-quality service. We participate in all aspects of the schemes that relate to services offered in this department and contribute to pilot schemes when appropriate. Due to the wide variety of diseases covered by genetics laboratories, the schemes offered and diseases covered vary from year to year.
Contact
The department is committed to a process of continual improvement in the quality of its services and welcomes comments and suggestions on ways to improve its services.
Carly Mogg
Quality Manager
carly.mogg@nhs.net
Tel: 0121 335 8034
Reporting times
|
Clinical Urgency |
Category (mapping to test directory) |
Sub-categories |
Calendar Days |
Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
URGENT |
Ultra Rapid |
NA |
3 days |
QF-PCR for rapid trisomy detection Urgent haemo-oncology FISH/RT-PCR PCR-based tests where the result is needed urgently for prenatal diagnosis |
|
URGENT |
Ultra Rapid |
N/A |
7 days |
NIPT |
|
URGENT |
Rapid |
Rapid |
14 days |
Microarray for prenatal/urgent postnatal (e.g. neonatal referrals) Urgent Haemato-oncology karyotyping Mutation-specific molecular pathology tests Southern blot tests where the result is needed urgently for prenatal diagnosis PCR-based tests for predictive testing & confirmation of neonatal results |
|
|
Complex rapid |
|
21 days |
Urgent panels and exomes for relevant indications NIPD |
|
NON-URGENT |
Standard |
Somatic Cancer |
21 days |
Standard HO karyotyping (e.g. MDS) NGS panels for HO referrals NGS panels for molecular pathology referrals |
|
|
Standard |
Rare disease |
42 days | Standard paediatric microarray Standard single gene and small gene panel (<10 gene) sequencing Known familial mutation testing Standard STR-based analysis Postnatal karyotyping (e.g. fertility or familial microarray follow-up) |
|
NON-URGENT |
Complex Standard |
Rare Disease |
84 days (12 weeks) |
Large gene-panels (>10 genes) or WES for standard referral indications |
|
WGS |
Part a) |
42 days | Expectation for delivery of centralised WGS (from DNA sample receipt to return of vcf and/or filtered variants to GLH) | |
|
WGS |
Part b) |
42 days | Validation/reporting of centralised WGS results after receipt at GLH |
Our current compliance against these guidelines are shown below
Rare Disease Turnaround Times (Updated February 2025)
| Target Calendar Days | Percentaged within TaT | Average TaT days | 95% reported within days | |
| 3 | 79.8% | 2.7 | 5.6 | |
| 5 | Fetal Screening Anomaly Programme NIPT | 98.0% | 3.6 | 6.1 |
| 7 | 99.0% | 4.9 | 7.6 | |
| 14 | 63.4% | 14.0 | 29.2 | |
| 21 | 73.6% | 16.1 | 40.8 | |
| 42 | 49.8% | 44.5 | 96.8 | |
| 84 | 71.4% | 73.3 | 153.2 |
Solid Cancer Turnaround Times (Updated February 2025)
| Target Calendar Days (Tat) | Percentage within TaT | Average TaT days | 95% reported within days | |
| 3 | - | - | - | |
| 5 | DPYD testing | 98.9% | 3.1 | 6.4 |
| 21 | 74.9% | 22.2 | 48.6 | |
| 42 | 42.9% | 68.3 | 196.9 |