UK Transfusion Laboratory Collaborative: minimum standards for staff qualifications, training, competency and the use...

The SHOT Adverse Incident Reporting Scheme has consistently reported an unacceptably high level of errors originating in the laboratory setting. In 2006 an initiative was launched in conjunction with the IBMS, SHOT, RCPath, BBTS, UK NEQAS, the NHSE NBTC and the equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that led to the formation of the UK TLC. The UK TLC in considering the nature and spread of the errors documented by SHOT concluded that a significant proportion of these errors were most likely to be related to either the use of information technology or staff education, staffing levels, skill mix, training and competency issues. In the absence of any formal guidance on these matters, the UK TLC developed a series of recommendations using the results of two laboratory surveys conducted in 2007 and 2008.