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Please note: The responsibility for the Food, Water and Environmental (FWE) documents, including guidance notes has transferred to the HPA Food, Water and Environmental Microbiology Laboratory and therefore the FWE documents are no longer available within the UK Standards for Microbiology Investigation repository and on these web pages. Please contact Dr Jim McLauchlin at jim.mclauchlin@hpa.org.uk for any queries relating to Food, Water and Dairy methodologies.
IMPORTANT: Please note the new Health Protection Legislation (England) Guidance 2010 will be in place from 1st October 2010. Please see following link for a summary. The National Standard Methods will be updated to reflect the regulations in due course.
National Standard Methods translated into Italian! please click here to view
Are you carrying out Audits using National Standard Methods?
National Standard Methods are frequently used as an audit tool at a local and national level. Please let us know if you are undertaking audits using National Standard Methods by e-mailing us a copy of the report or involve us in the formation of the questions. We welcome any collaboration which will improve the quality of the documents.
As always, the Standards Unit welcomes all comments and feedback on the development of National Standard Methods. Watch this space for new ways in which you can voice your suggestions!
To inform our users and manage our work process we have developed a schedule of documents due for review over the course of the year. This schedule is for information only and will assist laboratories when reviewing their internal SOPs. The schedule is subject to change in accordance with changing priorities in Microbiology. NSM work schedule - 2010
Coming soon to all our documents: Glossaries.
Over the next year there will be a new feature to our QSOPS and BSOPs. We are inserting glossaries into our documents. Eventually we hope that they will be a feature of all NSMs where relevant.
Glossaries are an alphabetical list of terms and their definitions in a particular domain of knowledge. These terms are either newly introduced in the documents or fairly uncommon in everyday life. Glossaries are usually placed at the end of the document, and in the NSMs can be found just before the list of references.
The first of our documents to have a glossary inserted was QSOP 55 – Investigation of vesicular rashes have a look and tell us what you think.
We now have a "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) page
We are developing a new website and welcome your views on how to make it user friendly. Please contact the Standards Unit.
- Syndromic algorithms to link clinical syndromes to laboratory testing
- NSM Joint Working Group for Clinical Microbiology
- Hepatitis Guidance Note - QSOP 54
SMIs 2011
July 2011
ID 11 - Identification of Moraxella Species and Morphologically Similar Organisms
TP 12 - Deoxyribonuclease test
V 44 - Serological Diagnosis of Syphilis
NSMs 2010
December: Test procedures - Point changes
BSOPTP 2 - Aesculin hydrolysis test
BSOPTP 5 - Bile solubility test
BSOPTP 12 - Deoxyribonuclease test
BSOPTP 24 - ONPG (ß-galactosidase) test
BSOPTP 27 - Oxidation and fermentation of glucose test
BSOPTP 29 - Porphyrin synthesis (ala) test
BSOPTP 38 - X and V factor test
December
BSOPTP 1 - Example reference strains for National Standard Method Test Procedures
BSOPTP 30 - Potassium hydroxide test
BSOPTP 34 - Thermonuclease test
November
VSOP 4 - Hepatitis B diagnostic serology in the immunocompetent (including Hepatitis B in pregnancy)
VSOP 5 - Investigation of Hepatitis C Infection
QSOP 54 - Investigation of Hepatitis
QSOP 27 - Quality assurance in the diagnostic virology and serology laboratory
QSOP 67 - Investigation of specimens for ectoparasites
September
BSOP 30 - Investigation of faecal specimens for bacterial pathogens
BSOPID 16 - Identification of Enterobacteriaceae
BSOPID 22 - Identification of Escherichia coli O157
BSOP 39 - Investigation of dermatological specimens for superficial mycoses
QSOP 38 - Good laboratory practice when performing molecular amplification assays
July
BSOP 37 - Investigation of blood cultures (for organisms other than Mycobacterium species)
BSOPTP 5 - Bile solubility test
BSOPTP 12 - Deoxyribonuclease test
BSOPTP 24 - ONPG (ß-galactosidase) test
June
BSOPTP 27 - Oxidation/Fermentation of Glucose test
BSOPTP 29 - Porphyrin Synthesis (ALA) test
BSOPTP 32 - Changing the phase of Salmonella
BSOPTP 38 - X and V Factor Test
VSOP 13 - Electron Microscopy: Flotation (direct) method
VSOP 14 - Electron Microscopy: Differential centrifugation (double-spin method)
VSOP 21 - Isolation of viruses associated with infections of the eye: Keratoconjunctivitis
March
QSOP 58 - Presumptive diagnosis of Cronobacter sakazakii infection of infants
BSOPTP 2 - Aesculin hydrolysis test
QSOP 59 - Investigation of Toxoplasma Infection in Pregnancy
VSOP 12 - Preparation of coated grids for electron microscopy
VSOP 45 - Haemadsorption of Viruses
February
S 1 - Acute Infective Hepatitis