Dr. Adrienne Duff:

Yes. The accreditation is awarded to an organisation to carry out a range of activities. In this instance it is for cytology screening. To meet the standard for accreditation and to meet the requirements for ISO 15189, it covers a whole range of elements including: personnel; competence of personnel; equipment calibration, maintenance and traceability; the release and authorisation of reports and so on. The ISO 15189 standard covers in detail very technical requirements for any laboratory to meet, and covers management systems requirements for any laboratory to meet.