Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Registrar, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), Tosan Erahbor, has disclosed that no fewer than 20 medical laboratories have been shut in 10 states in past one year.
He said the action was part of routine regulatory checks on practicing laboratory scientists, to ensure that set standards were maintained.
Erahbor told journalists at a press conference in Abuja, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Council, that the body
had strengthened its monitoring system to ensure that standard are regularly maintained in the profession.
He said that MLSCN has, in the past 50 years, contributed greatly to healthy Nigeria through quality and accurate
laboratory services.
He equally allayed the fear that increased interest of foreign trained laboratory scientists in Nigeria’s health
system was a threat to locally trained practitioners.
He explained that the Council had designed a workable plan to strengthen the credibility of its systems, resulting in wide acceptance of the outcome of its qualifying exams being conducted for foreign-trained laboratory scientists.
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He said: “We have so far conducted the qualifying exam for three consecutive times and we have recorded over 60 per cent success. Nobody has also questioned the outcome or feel cheated because we promote transparency and give equal opportunity to every candidate.
“We have three training institutions across Nigeria, in Benin, Jos and Ibadan. Enlisted foreign trained laboratory scientists are kept in these training centres for seven months. The essence is to get them acquainted with the peculiarities in Nigeria since some of them might have been trained in countries that have no malaria or other parasites in Nigeria. The training is ended with mock exam and qualifying exam.
“For the sake of credibility, exam questions don’t get to examiners until a few minutes to the commencement of the exam. It is then printed and distributed. Answers are supplied at the end of the exam for marking. These have proven to more credible and transparent.”