From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) has warned individuals who are interested in running medical laboratory premises in Nigeria to get accredited before opening such premises for public patronage.
It warned that it won’t hesitate to shut premises and arrest individuals found to have been operating unaccredited laboratory premises in any location in the country.
Registrar of MLSCN, Dr. Tosan Erhabor, who gave the warning at a presentation of ISO 15189: 2012 certificate of Accreditation to a newly established medical laboratory in Abuja, assured that the process is neither tedious nor cumbersome, urging the interested individuals to get accredited before operations to avoid punishment.
He assured that MLSCN would not unnecessarily delay the accreditation of any facility/premises that has met the criteria for accreditation.
He said the time has come for every medical laboratory in the country to begin to benchmark international best practices through accreditation. “Such has been instrumental to the accurate and reliable medical laboratory diagnosis that we seek abroad, and if it is good for the citizens of other nations, it should be good for our citizens too.”
He said that currently, in some countries, no medical laboratory facility is allowed to operate without being accredited, adding that “we should, however, separate accreditation from certification, as the former is voluntary and connotes that the facility has climbed the quality ladder, conformed to stipulations of the Quality Management Systems (QMS) and those claims have been verified and validated by an external agency”.
The Registrar, while reiterating the commitment of MLSCN to supporting as many medical laboratories in the country that are willing to key into the process of accreditation, noted that patients expect and deserve the accurate and reliable medical laboratory results.
He said accreditation would, therefore, stem the efflux of citizens to other countries in search of such opportunities. “It does not make economic sense that on one hand, we bemoan the paucity of foreign exchange that has contributed to the downward spiral of the Naira, yet on the other hand we spend the little we have on medical tourism to other climes instead of upscaling our health systems,” he said.
Dr. Erhabor further noted that it was in keeping with his pledge to turn around the fortunes of the health laboratory system that MLSCN had accredited 14 facilities in recent times.
He recalled that the Independent Advisory Committee led by eminent scientist, Prof. Oyewole Tomori, recently approved the accreditation of three new facilities whose assessment had been concluded by MLSCN.