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THE Federal Government has urged medical laboratories in the country to key into the global programme of accreditation as a way of upscaling their services and ensuring accurate and reliable test results.
It noted that asides being the hallmark of quality the world over, it has the capacity to improve the foreign exchange of the country by curbing medical tourism.
The Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), Dr Tosan Erhabor, made this known at the presentation of ISO 15189: 2012 certificate of Accreditation to Lifebridge Medical Laboratory in Abuja recently.
Erhabor, according to a statement by the Council, said: “The time has come for every medical laboratory in the country to begin to benchmark international best practices through accreditation. Such has been instrumental to the accurate and reliable medical laboratory diagnosis that we seek abroad, and if it is good for the citizens of other nations, it should be good for our citizens too. Currently, in some countries, no medical laboratory facility is allowed to operate without being accredited.
“We should, however, separate accreditation from certification, as the former is voluntary and connotes that the facility has climbed the Quality ladder, conformed to stipulations of the Quality Management Systems (QMS) and those claims have been verified and validated by an external agency.”
He explained that accreditation would, therefore, stem the efflux of citizens to other countries in search of such opportunities. “It does not make economic sense that on one hand, we bemoan the paucity of foreign exchange that has contributed to the downward spiral of the naira, yet on the other hand we spend the little we have on medical tourism to other climes instead of upscaling our health systems.”
Furthermore, Erhabor noted that it was in keeping with his pledge to turn around the fortunes of the health laboratory system that MLSCN had accredited 14 facilities in recent times.
“We have, therefore, presented accreditation certificates to two of the three deserving facilities approved by the IAC. The first was the Lagos-based Afriglobal Medicare Ltd., and Lifebridge Medical Diagnostics Centre based in Abuja, while the third facility is underway,” he said.
-The Nation
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Tags: Tosan Erhabor
