Quality Policy

The Scottish Cutaneous Porphyria Service (SCPS) is part of the Scottish Photobiology Service - a National Specialist Service appointed by the National Services Division/National Specialist and Screening Services Directorate (NSD) as part of the NHS National Services Scotland Health board and is responsible for the provision of a comprehensive photobiology service for the population of Scotland. The Scottish Photobiology Service is one of the Medical Physics & Hydatidiform Mole Follow-Up (Scotland) (HMFUS) sections within the Access and Assurance Division of NHS Tayside. The SCPS laboratory is housed in the Photobiology Laboratory in Ninewells Hospital and Medical School (Dundee) as part of the Dermatology Outpatients Department which is within the Surgical Care Division of NHS Tayside.

Scope: The Scottish Cutaneous Porphyria Service is committed to providing a prompt and clinically appropriate analytical, diagnostic, interpretive and advisory service for the diagnosis and management of cutaneous porphyrias. The service is dedicated to the diagnosis and monitoring of cutaneous porphyrias in Scotland and offers a complete examination program for the diagnosis of cutaneous porphyrias, including plasma and blood cell screening, quantification of porphyrin precursors in urine, total porphyrin levels in blood, urine and stool samples, and porphyrin profiling by HPLC.

The Scottish Cutaneous Porphyria Service is committed to compliance with the accreditation standards ISO:15189 and ISO:9001 as assessed by United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and British Standards Institution (BSI) respectively.

In order to ensure that the needs and requirements of service users and patients are met, the Scottish Cutaneous Porphyria Service:

• operates a quality management system that includes organisational structure and management, policies and procedures, quality objectives, a quality manual, control, assessment, continual maintenance and improvement
• sets clinical governance and quality objectives that are reviewed annually for continuing suitability to ensure a high level of excellence, care, and patient focus, safe practice and service that is accountable and responsible
• ensures that all staff are familiar with this quality policy and all policies procedures applicable to their work
• promotes staff recruitment, training and development to provide an effective service
• upholds professional values and encourages all staff to be committed to professional standards of practice and conduct (NHS Good Practice Guidelines)
• uses examination procedures that meet specified quality with regard to the collection, handling, preparation and storage of all specimens in a timely, confidential, and clinically useful manner
• is committed to reporting examination results in timely, accurate and clinically useful ways
• ensures the health, safety and welfare of all its staff and visitors to the service and ensures that they are treated with due dignity and respect
• is dedicated to ongoing quality improvement through assessing user satisfaction and participation in internal audit and external quality assurance programs
• adheres to safe working practice and works to comply with relevant legislation

Source: PBUL025 05/08/2024 Issue:1 Review:2