Quality assurance in clinical bacteriology--a continuous development in Hungary since 1927.

In Hungary, uniform methods and quality assessment date back as early as 1927, when the National Institute of Hygiene and regional public health laboratories were established. The National Microbiology Committee organized in 1984 was replaced in 1992 by the National Clinical Microbiology Board and the Joint Quality Assurance Committee of Clinical Microbiology for which the National Institute of Hygiene acts as an operating centre. A long-range programme of proficiency testing and on-site inspections had a beneficial effect on performance in public health laboratories: in 1989 20 out of 24 of them were scored in the excellent or good degree. Hospital laboratories, which joined this programme only in 1984, exhibited less satisfactory results.