Trial extension to Morphology programmes closing date effective 2203BF, 2202PA and 2202RD

Following a number of requests from participants and consultation with our Morphology Scientific Advisory Group, UK NEQAS is extending the Morphology programmes closing dates on a trial basis to allow participants extra time to complete the exercises. The closing dates for 2203BF, 2202PA and 2202RD will be extended from 23:59 on Thursday the 19th of May to 23:59 on Sunday the 22nd of May 2022. This should have no impact on the scheduled report dates. This will be trialled for the 2022/2023 registration cycle.

IHN-SHOT meeting July 6-8

SHOT have partnered with the International Haemovigilance Network to hold The Annual SHOT Symposium 2022. The event will run from 6-8 July 2022 in Brighton. The theme of the event will be ‘Transfusion Safety: Past, Present and Future’. For those unable to attend in-person, IHN- SHOT will also be streamed virtually.

Click here for more information

New UK NEQAS BTLP Webinar recording available

The recording of our recent March Webinar is now available online on our YouTube channel using the link below

BTLP Update Webinar 21 03 2022 - YouTube 

UK NEQAS Point of Care Testing Event

UK NEQAS is holding a pan-disciplinary, point of care testing event in Birmingham on June 30th 2022.  This is our first in person meeting for 2 years, so we can’t wait to see you all!  More details of the event can be found in the attached flyer or from this link.  Spaces are limited, so you are advised to book early.

UK NEQAS Blood Coagulation Meeting in June

Details in the following link:  UK NEQAS for Blood Coagulation - CLH 2022

2022 Re-Registration

UK NEQAS Haematology

Re-registration process is now closed for UK NEQAS Haematology. For queries, please contact ghadmin@ukneqas.org.uk

UK NEQAS Blood Transfusion Laboratory Practice  (BTLP)

Re-registration process is now closed for UK NEQAS Blood Transfusion Laboratory Practice (BTLP). For queries, please contact btlpadmin@ukneqas.org.uk

UK NEQAS BTLP Webinar recording available

The recording of our recent February Webinar is now available online using the link below

BTLP Update Webinar 17 02 2022 - YouTube

You can book onto our next one (21/03/22) using the link below

Book here

UK NEQAS BTLP WEBINAR

UK NEQAS BTLP are proud to present a FREE TO ATTEND 1 hour scientific/educational webinar.

Monday 21st March 2022 (14:30-15:30 UK time) Learning from Experience

• Antibody Identification Strategies
  
• Phenotyping
  
• IT Guidelines Up-date
  

Registration is now open (click here to register)

Are you interested in becoming a scientific advisor?

UK NEQAS Haematology relies on the expertise of our Scientific Advisory Groups (SAGs) members, who provide advice, feedback and ideas to develop our services. We are always looking for new recruits. You do not have to be a national or international ‘expert’ in the field: we need representatives of our service users with an interest in laboratory haematology and an enthusiasm for the role of EQA in patient care.  The SAGs operate in three areas: Automated Counting, Haemoglobinopathies and Morphology.  We are keen to recruit to the Automated Counting SAG, especially if you are a Beckman Coulter user, but all expressions of interest are welcome.  The time commitment is relatively small, comprising attendance at a couple of meetings annually, participation in occasional Task and Finish Groups and review of documentation.  In return, you will be invited to the Annual Participants’ meeting (including accommodation) as our guest.  If you are interested or would like to know more, contact Barbara De la Salle (01923 587111 or barbara.delasalle@nhs.net).  Don’t be afraid to ask or think you have nothing to offer! 

UK NEQAS Newsletter 2022-2023

Please click here for the Haematology Newsletter 2022-2023

Please click here for the BTLP Newsletter 2022-2023

UK NEQAS Participants' manual

Please click here for the UK NEQAS Haematology Participants’ Manual – Version 12 (December 2021) available to download.

UK NEQAS Schedules for 2022/23

PDF copies of exercise schedules have been uploaded and can be accessed in our documents section. You can also use our online schedules list by clicking here Online schedules.

The online schedules page allows you to view all the exercises along with the opening, closing and reporting dates. You will also be able to filter down and view schedules for individual schemes. Further to this you can view an individualised schedule for your own PRN from that same page as long as you are logged in. To do this click the Login button, login with your PRN, Identity and Password and click the Distribution schedules option from the drop down menu with your initials.

All schedules allow you to export them as PDFs or Excel sheets so you can download and / or print them.

2112FB and 2106DL Reports

We apologies for the delay in issuing the 2112FB and 2106DL reports. We have been experiencing IT processing issues which has impacted on our ability to provide the reports as per our schedule. Thank you for your patience.

UK NEQAS Haematology Update Webinars

Sessions will include a keynote morphology session led by Dr Peter Carey and Professor Barbara Bain, and there will be time at the end of each webinar presentation for delegates to participate in an interactive Q&A session with the speakers.

Webinar Recordings are now available to watch. Click links below

Week 1	UK NEQAS Haematology Current Performance and Future Developments
Day/date/time	Thursday 21st October 2021, 14:30-15:30 (UK time)
Speaker(s)	Dr Barbara De la Salle
Recording	https://youtu.be/V45_BWmKn3Y

Week 2	UK NEQAS Morphology with the Experts
Day/date/time	Thursday 28th October 2021, 14:30-15:30 (UK time)
Guest Speaker(s)	Dr Peter Carey, Professor Barbara Bain, Dr Michelle Brereton and Dr John Burthem
Recording	https://youtu.be/928fF84PGOw

Week 3	Clinical Application of Advance Automated Counting Parameters
Day/date/time	Thursday 4th November 2021, 14:30-15:30 (UK time)
Guest Speaker(s)	Dr Wayne Thomas
Recording	https://youtu.be/xKF-wRaKQ0o

For further information
Visit: www.ukneqas.org.uk/events
Email: haem@ukneqas.org.uk

UK NEQAS Haematology: 2111HB, 2111PV, 2111NH

The UK NEQAS Haematology and Transfusion website and server experienced technical issues during 30/11/2021 and 01/12/2021. Results submitted between 15:00 (GMT, UTC +0) on the 30th of November and 19:30 on the same day may have been lost.

Participants that have lost their data will be able to return this information.

We have re-opened our 2111HB, 21111PV, 2111NH surveys to allow you to confirm and re-submit your results. Please log into https://www.ukneqash.org/SampleEntry/ and submit your results as normal. Please ensure that the analysis date reflects when samples were analysed to ensure results are reviewed appropriately.

2111HB, 2111PV, 2111NH reports will be delayed as a result.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. In the meantime if you have any further queries regarding this please do not hesitate to contact us at haem@ukneqas.org.uk.

Professor Samuel Machin (1949-2021)

We were saddened by the news of the death of Professor Sam Machin on Saturday October 2^nd.   Sam was chair of the UK NEQAS Haematology Steering Committee from 2006 – 2009 and his support of the Scheme was much valued.  Tributes and thoughts on Professor Machin’s life and contribution can be posted at the following ‘Much Loved’ page, which has been established by his family and friends:

Tribute to Samuel Machin, 1949 - 2021

This site is a tribute to Sam, who sadly passed away on October 2nd 2021 aged 72 years. He is much loved and will always be remembered by everyone who was lucky enough to know him.

UK NEQAS Haematology 2108NH distribution

We regret that several packages for the 2108NH distribution have been delayed due to an internal administrative oversight.  These packages were dispatched on Friday 20th August and we advise that you allow 4 days for them to arrive.  As a result of this delay, we will not close the distribution for return of results until Wednesday 8th September.  We apologise for this inconvenience.  If you have any queries, please contact haem@ukneqas.org.uk.

UK NEQAS Services Available List for 2021-2022

UK NEQAS Services Available List 2021-2022

The UK NEQAS Services Available List is a comprehensive directory of all UK NEQAS External Quality Assessment (EQA) / Proficiency Testing (PT) programmes, and is available to view online now. Haematology-related EQA programmes are listed on pages 8-10 of the directory.

Global EQA 

The directory features over 500 different EQA/PT programmes covering over 5,000 unique analytes, ensuring full coverage of all aspects of clinical laboratory testing.

New Developments

The UK NEQAS consortium has developed several new pilot modules and have launched a range of Covid-19 services, including new EQA/PT programmes and educational competency programmes, details of which can be found within the Services Available List.

UK NEQAS Haematology Update Webinars March 2021

Following the UK NEQAS Haematology webinars held in March 2021, please find below links to the recordings of each webinar:

Week 2 Recording: Troubleshooting Haematology EQA, Tuesday 16 March (click here)

Week 3 Recording: Haemoglobinopathy EQA Cases, Tuesday 23 March (click here)

Postponement of the UK NEQAS Haematology Annual Participants’ meeting

The Annual Participants’ meeting 2020 was cancelled as a result of the national Covid-19 restrictions and we have taken the difficult decision not to hold a face-to-face meeting in 2021 because of continued uncertainty. We will hold three webinars free-of-charge for participants on March 9, 16 and 23 2021 and plan to offer further online or streamed educational activities in place of the Participants’ Meeting in the Autumn of 2021.

UK NEQAS Covid-19 testing EQA

UK NEQAS offers a range of EQA to support Covid-19 diagnostic and monitoring testing. Click here for more information.

Parasitology Teaching Day

For access to UK NEQAS Parasitology website please click here. If you have any questions, please email us here.

Handling UK NEQAS Haematology and Transfusion specimens during the COVID-19 pandemic

UK NEQAS Haematology and Transfusion specimens are a low risk for Covid-19 infection, compared to clinical samples. We have undertaken a risk assessment and advice on handling our specimens and packages during the pandemic can be found here.

We gave consideration to cancelling and moving the exercise to a different date, however with the rapidly changing situation around COVID-19, it seemed very unlikely that there would be any short-term improvement in access to material.

The data entry pages for the exercise will still have details for both Patients 1 and 2. We have marked all Patient 2 samples as “Unsatisfactory sample quality – Sample not received” so that you can submit results without entering data for Patient 2.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused by this change.