GHS partners private sector in laboratory reforms
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has adopted measures to reform the laboratory systems in health care delivery.
In this regard, the private sector is being engaged in the refurbishment of the Central Clinical Reference Laboratory at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) to be able to conduct quality assurance tests on reagents to ensure patients receive accurate laboratory tests.
Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, Director General of GHS, who announced the measures, said in addition, the GHS was engaging the private sector to assist with the supply, distribution and management of reagents and equipment to promote efficient and effective laboratory services.
This was in an address read for Dr Appiah-Denkyira by Dr Samuel Kaba, Director of Institutional Care of the GHS, at the opening of the Annual Congress of the Ghana Association of Biomedical Laboratory Scientists (GABMLS) in Sunyani.
The three-day congress, on the theme; “Quality Management Systems: Key to Raising Medical Laboratory Standards in Ghana,” would create awareness on the need to raise medical laboratory standards in Ghana to international standards.
Medical laboratory practice includes research, screening, diagnosis, treatment and public education which are integral components of efficient and effective health care.
Dr Appiah-Denkyira said study leave with pay had been granted to many biomedical scientists to pursue Masters and Doctorate programmes in Ghana and abroad.
He said it was not true that some medical services were more important than others and, therefore, urged all and sundry to realise that health service delivery was like a circle and all health workers in a given point of the circle, made it complete.
“You are equally important and without you, doctors cannot accomplish their duties and patients will not know their diagnosis and treatment can never be appropriately administered.”
Dr Alfred Sugri Tia, Deputy Minister of Health, said in an address read for him that the Ministry had, in collaboration with its partners, developed a National Health Laboratory Policy, National Health Laboratory Strategic Plan, and National Health Laboratory Accreditation Policy, which would soon be launched for implementation.
He said management of medical laboratory was weak in the health care delivery system and for that reason the Ministry, through the GHS in collaboration with the US-based Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, was working with some medical laboratories to strengthen laboratory management for accreditation.
Dr Tia expressed optimism that through the process of accreditation, there would be quality laboratory management and adherence to standards.
Prince Sodoke Amuzu, President of GABMLS, said medical laboratory practice was focused on regulated and standardised practices, to provide quality services to people to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
He said the specific role of medical laboratory services in providing the scientific basis for medicine placed remarkable responsibility and expectation on practitioners to maintain high standards to ensure that medical services did not turn out to be presumptuous and unscientific.
Prince Amuzu stressed the need to invest resources in the sector to enable it to live up to expectation.
Source: GNA