NVRL INAB Update: Sexual Health Laboratory

Sexual Health Laboratory at UCD NVRL: Change to INAB accreditation status

UCD NVRL is committed to supporting the HSE National Sexual Health Strategy 2015-2020 [1]. In response to recommendations in this strategy document to improve capacity and accessibility to laboratory testing services for patients, the NVRL has commissioned a new sexual health testing laboratory following an upgrade and refurbishment of one of our existing laboratories. This state of the art molecular facility provides optimal environmental conditions for our Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoea, Trichomonas vaginalis, Mycoplasma genitalium and Human papillomavirus services. There has been no change to the technology used and all expected quality performance criteria have been met in the new facility.

The new facility will be inspected by INAB during our scheduled site visit in June 2019. In the interim period, INAB have instructed that the Aptima assays for Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoea, Trichomonas vaginalis, Mycoplasma genitalium rRNA assays on the Panther system be removed from the INAB schedule of accreditation for NVRL until after this inspection. This suspension was implemented on 6^th March 2019. The amended schedule can be found here. There is no clinical or analytical impact on results generated using these systems and all required quality performance indicators are monitored and actioned in accordance with ISO15189:2012 standards

References:

1. https://health.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/National-Sexual-Health-Strategy.pdf