Weqas is one of the largest External Quality Assessment providers in the UK, with over 50 years of experience in delivering global Quality Assurance Programmes in Laboratory Medicine.

Weqas operates as an independent organisation, hosted by Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board, based at Unit 6, Parc Ty Glas, Cardiff.

Supplying to more than 35,000 sites per month, Weqas provides over 50 EQA Programmes, including external audit, performance analysis and an educational advisory service. We would like to become your provider of choice for Clinical Laboratory Quality Assurance Support, within four distinct services:

• External Quality Assessment for Laboratory and Point of Care Services
• Reference Laboratory
• Quality Control Production
• Education and Training

Weqas Programmes are underpinned by commutable metrological traceable samples and informative reports. Our range of Web based reporting options cater for the Laboratory Manager, the Laboratory Scientists and the POCT end user. Our team of experienced Scientists and POCT Co-ordinators provide a unique troubleshooting and problem solving service to our clients.

With changing technologies, techniques and patient care delivery models, there is a pressing need to ensure there is a focus within education and training programmes for standardisation of analyses, error reporting, poor performance and laboratory accreditation. Unique to Weqas is the education, workshops, e-learning and presentations which are available, that can be tailored to our clients needs.

Weqas is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) for conformity assessment activities. Weqas are accredited in accordance with the international standard ISO/IEC 17043:2023 – Conformity assessment: General requirements for the competence of proficiency testing providers. In addition, the Weqas Reference Laboratory is accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 – General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, and ISO 15195:2018 – Laboratory medicine: Requirements for the competence of calibration laboratories using reference measurement procedures.

Weqas accreditation to ISO17043 operates with a combination of fixed and flexible scopes of accreditation:

• The fixed scope of accreditation defines the activities that are formally listed and published by UKAS. This represents the official accredited scope and can be viewed and downloaded via the UKAS website or here.
• The flexible scope of accreditation allows Weqas to introduce or modify specific activities within defined areas of competence without prior amendment to the UKAS schedule. These changes are controlled through robust internal procedures to ensure continued compliance with accreditation requirements. Details of activities included within the flexible scope are available in the Flexible Scope Register.

The Weqas team are supported by a Steering Committee which advises the organisers on the overall operation of the Programme, including the frequency of distribution of materials, the types of materials to be distributed, methods of statistical analysis and data presentation, and the desirability of introducing new investigations to the Programme.

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