From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has commended medical laboratory scientists for the role they played at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, admitting that their commitment and professionalism was instrumental to successes recorded against the pandemic.
President Buhari, in his speech at the opening ceremony of the second regional annual scientific conference and induction of elected fellows of the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science in Abuja, on Monday, called for more support from the scientists for the final onslaught on COVID-19 and other epidemics.
The president who was represented by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said: “In the absence of a laboratory with the capacity to confirm the coronavirus in the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, one was left to wonder what the impact of that one positive case could have resulted to.
‘At the onset of COVID-19, very few laboratories had the capacity to conduct molecular testing, a methodology that overtook the traditional methods used to identify organisms. We could not have effectively managed the pandemic the way we did without increasing the number of laboratories that could detect COVID-19 accurately and in a safe manner,’ the president stated.
He confirmed that Federal Government has made available funds for the establishment of molecular laboratories in all federal tertiary health institutions and research centres, adding that state governments and partners have also supported laboratory strengthening in different ways.
‘Today, we are grappling with COVID-19, we do not know what it will be tomorrow. So, we must continue to be battle ready. Government will continue to provide the enabling environment for professionals to work, and the professionals are expected to continue to improve their knowledge and skill.
‘This is where the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science needs to play the critical role of ensuring that relevant human resource capacity is developed in the West African sub-region to complement efforts of government at strengthening laboratory capacity.’
The chairman of the occasion, Prof Oyewale Tomori, in his remarks, called out the Federal Government for establishing high number of laboratories that are not reporting results.
Tomori, a professor of virology, said: ‘I monitor reports of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC). Out of over 100 laboratories that are in the database of NCDC, half of them don’t send report of case. I believe it’s better that we have fewer laboratories that are functional than to have hundreds of laboratories in which only few are working.’
Earlier in a press conference, the Registrar of the College, Dr Godswill Okara, disclosed 120 medical laboratory scientists that completed their training programmes at the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science were inducted as Fellows as part of the regional conference activities.
Dr Okara explained that the conference provided opportunity for stakeholders in the medical laboratory services to appreciate themselves, exchange knowledge, ideas and expertise, and also examine, critically, issues militating against the services and proffer superior solutions to the identified problems, particularly manpower related issues.
‘Available records indicated that 36 countries in the African Region have a health human resources crisis, and 10 of these face critical shortages. This acute shortage of skilled health workers means that most countries are unable to avail appropriately skilled health workers in the right quantity where they are needed,’ he said.
‘Human capacity development is critical in the provision of an effective and efficient heath care service. The achievement of the 2019-2023 WHO “Triple Billion Target” can only be possible if the health workforce operates in collaboration and cooperation among themselves, as it obtains in other parts of the developed world.’