The challenges encountered by laboratories in the SADC region with respect to meeting their proficiency testing needs.

摘要

Laboratories within in the Southern African Developing Countries (SADC) region are faced with some major differences between them. There are differences in the development of standards and access to standards; access to calibration service providers; access to education and technical training providers; access to suitable reference materials, access to equipment maintenance providers and access to accreditation bodies. Due to these differences, it can be easily seen that an accreditation body (AB) performing work in this region would have proficiency testing (PT) as an integral tool in monitoring the quality of accredited results emanating from the laboratory. However there are challenges being encountered by both the AB and laboratory in developing a coordinated approach to PT.