It has consequently called on prescribers of laboratory requests of the hospital, made up of doctors and nurses, not to refer laboratory diagnostic cases to private laboratories around the hospital.
It said that even if there was the need for referral of any laboratory diagnostic cases, such referral must come from the central lab, rather than the medical staff.“Let the cases come to us, and then we will refer. Our laboratory is ready to take care of the hospital’s patients. Transforming the services and restoring trust in medical laboratory services in the KBTH is a collective responsibility of all of us.
“I call on all of us to rededicate ourselves to the advocacy to fight against the high speed or tendency of referring laboratory diagnostic cases to private laboratories around us. Let us work together to improve the system,” the acting Laboratory Manager of the KBTH, Dr Michael Amo Omari, appealed.
Dr Omari said this at the maiden Open Day celebration of the Central Laboratory of the KBTH in Accra last Wednesday.The Open Day, which was on the theme: “Transforming diagnostics, restoring trust: Our commitment to sustainability,” was in commemoration of World Laboratory Day which is celebrated on April 15, each year.Private LaboratoriesIt is very common to find patients of the KBTH being referred by doctors and nurses to have laboratory tests done in private laboratories around the KBTH, a situation Dr Omari described as a challenge to them.
Dr Omari said not only did the Central Laboratory have the capability to conduct all tests, but they were number one above those competitors and that was why the cases should first come to them and if there was the need to refer, they would do it themselves.He said the Central Laboratory, with its vision to be a centre of excellence in providing laboratory diagnostic services and the preferred medical laboratory centre within West Africa, had in the past journeyed through challenges of mistrust and criticisms, some relating to results, accuracy and financial inefficiencies.
He said they learned and acted on the criticisms, and now they had some results.He announced the ISO accreditation that the Central Laboratory had just received adding that the scope of the accreditation was unmatched in the country, pointing out that it covered all the units of the department.
Congratulating the Central Laboratory on their ISO accreditation, the Director of Allied Health at the Ministry of Health (MOH), Dr Ignatius Awinibuno, said the ISO accreditation the Central Laboratory had received, was the most current, 2022 which madethe facility one of the few across the world that had been able to achieve that.He said the MOH recognised that laboratories formed the backbone of evidence-based health care ,explaining that accurate diagnosis, effective treatment plans and robust disease surveillance hinged on quality and reliable laboratory services and it was for that reason that the ministry remained unwavering in its commitment to strengthen laboratory , across the country.
To this end, he said, the ministry had made significant progress on the National Laboratory Policy which was aimed at standardising laboratory services nationwide to, among others, ensure access to universal health care through well-coordinated laboratory systems.
The acting Chief Executive Officer of KBTH, Dr Frank Owusu-Sekyere, pledged the support of the management of the hospital to ensure that the accreditation attained was sustained.He said he expected that the Central Laboratory would be able to perform a lot more services with their attainment of the ISO accreditation.Other speakers at the event included the Laboratory Focal Person of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme, Dr Felix Kodzo Besah Sorvor.
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