Laboratory scientists want health professions bill passed
The Ghana Association of Biomedical Laboratory Scientists (GABLS) is calling on government to as a matter of urgency setup a body to regulate the activities of medical laboratories in the country.
The industry is currently experiencing mushrooming of unaccredited medical laboratories, resulting in the delivery of low quality standard health care delivery in the area of biomedical laboratory services.
President of GABLS, Prince Sodoke Amusu, says the association is very much concerned about the quality of service delivered by these category of scientists who work in health care facilities to help doctors diagnose disease and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment through the analysis of fluids and tissue samples from patients.
The biomedical laboratory scientist more or less provide the "engine room" of modern medicine with 70 per cent of diagnoses based on the pathology results provided by laboratory services.
The work of the BLS in disease management, which include cancer screening, diagnosing HIV, blood transfusion for surgery, food poisoning and infection control, makes them the foundation of modern health care.
However, the absence of a regulatory body to regulate the activities of this important aspect of the health care delivery system in Ghana has resulted in the upsurge of quack and other unprofessional persons who are degrading the integrity of the practice.
It is against this backdrop that Prince Sodoke Amusu, President of the GABLS, is insisting for parliament to pass the health professions bill into law as soon as possible to take away the possibility of a lot of quackery medical laboratories in the country.
The association is also throwing its weight behind a new taskforce charged with shutting down such unapproved centres of practice.
“The association is hundred per cent in support of the task force’s decision to ask that clinic to stop providing diagnoses services for now until they provide for us all the people who are practicing there as professionals, their names, qualifications and certificates.”
But could the Association alone be blamed for the discrepancies and flaws of laboratory services, where there is no passion for studying the practice? It is estimated that out of a population of over 25 million, only a 1,200 lab technicians are there to meet the biomedical laboratory needs of the populace, thereby putting immense pressure on their service.
“The requests we get from the clinics are many and varied. So in one clinic for example, there could be three doctors requesting to one laboratory. And one doctor may be requesting five different tests on one patient. So you have just one laboratory technician working around the clock to get all these reports done,” Prince Sodoke Amusu noted.
He said there is the need for investment of resources in this sector since the role of Med-Lab services places remarkable responsibility and expectations on practitioners to maintain high levels of standardization.
The Greater Accra Chairman of the Ghana Association of Biomedical Laboratory Scientists, Michael Amo Omari indicated that the role of the laboratory in the management of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria in achieving the Millennium Development Goals cannot be over emphasized.
The laboratory scientists are currently holding their 7th Annual National Congress dubbed: Regulation of Medical Laboratory practice in Ghana, key in achieving Quality Healthcare and the Millennium Development Goals”.
By: Johannes McWood, e.tv Ghana
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