Accreditation of PT providers – is it worth the money?

This topic is being presented from two perspectives, namely the views of an accreditation body and those of an accredited provider of external quality assessment schemes. The first perspective, from an accreditation body, is based on the experience of Australia's national laboratory accreditation body (NATA), which has accredited fourteen proficiency testing (PT) providers and is currently processing an application from another. The second perspective is based on the experience of EQUALIS, the national quality assurance organisation for laboratory medicine in Sweden, which was granted accreditation in 2002.Presented at 5^th Eurachem Workshop on Proficiency testing in analytical chemistry, microbiology and laboratory medicine, Portorož (Slovenia) 25–27 Sept 2005