UK NEQAS services are designed principally for UK public and private sector clinical laboratories serving clinicians and patients. Non-UK clinical laboratories, those with purely research or industrial roles, manufacturers of diagnostic instruments and reagents, and other laboratories are also welcome to participate. Manufacturers may do so on an 'information only' basis, i.e. without receiving samples and returning results.
Registration can take place at any time. Registration gathers full details of the participating laboratory. Laboratories can then 'purchase' the specific EQA schemes (see below). Invoicing for registration and EQA fees occurs at the beginning of each NHS financial year (1st April to 31st March).
Purchase of EQA schemes
Once a laboratory's registration is approved, they will recieive a user name and password. Laboratories will then be able to 'purchase' the relevant EQA schemes. The closing date for purchasing EQA is 1st April and laboratories will receive an invoice in late April.
Late Registrations
Laboratories registering for UK NEQAS for Clinical Cytogenetics after 1st April, may be able to purchase EQAs for the Autumn EQA rounds.
All laboratories registered with the Scheme will receive a User manual for the website and a Participants' Manual.
On enrolment, each participant is given a unique UK NEQAS laboratory code which remains associated with that participant. All codes are within the range 80000 to 80200.
Annual subscription charges are based on the full costs of providing EQA services according to the not-for-profit terms of the UK NEQAS Code of Practice. As such they are subject to continuous review and may be reduced as participation increases or if surpluses are generated. Equally they may be increased if costs rise or if participation decreases, though any such increase must be justified to the UK NEQAS Executive before implementation. The current tariff is either tissue or technique based. The cost of an EQA within the Constitutional Scheme is usually around £300 and for an EQA within the Haemato-oncology Scheme it is £360. There is a registration fee of £100 for UK laboratories and £150 for non-UK laboratories to cover additional administration and courier costs.
