An Audit of Enteric Laboratory Practice Undertaken on behalf of the HPA Gastrointestinal Infections Programmes Board

Despite the fact that National Standard Methods (now Standard Microbiological Investigations) have been available for some years, they are not prescriptive and there is considerable scope for individual departments to adopt their own test selection criteria, methodology and referral/reporting systems. Economic pressures and local circumstances may act as drivers for variation from the norm which may, in turn, influence the detection rates and reporting of gastrointestinal infections. The HPA GI Programmes Board is unaware of any previous, wide-ranging audit of enteric laboratory practice & initiated this exercise in order to gauge inter-laboratory variation in practice & assess the need for more detailed national guidance.