‘We need a clearly defined policy on laboratory practice’

The Ghana Association of Biomedical Laboratory Scientists (GABMLS) has urged the government to act quickly to put in place clearly defined policy on laboratory practice.


It said the absence of such a policy had not been helpful to the growth and development of medical laboratory science and diagnostics to enhance quality healthcare delivery.

These were contained in a statement signed by Mr. Thomas Kwabena Gyampomah, the President, and Mr. Michael Amo Omari, the General Secretary, at the end of the association’s national executive council meeting, and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi.

It said its members were deeply worried about the delay in the adoption and implementation of the National Health Laboratory Policy and the National Health Laboratory Accreditation Policy.

"Equally disturbing, is the inaction on a five-year strategic plan document, developed by a Laboratory Technical Committee set up by the Ghana Health Service with support from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Atlanta – United States (US),” it said.

“The document was approved and endorsed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2013, and it is completely unacceptable to allow the financial and technical investment put into it to go waste," it said.

The statement also expressed concern at what it claimed, were attempts by the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS) to infiltrate and take over the management of medical laboratories.

It said it was inappropriate to overlook and push the medical laboratory scientists to the sidelines, when it came to the management of laboratories and asked the MOH to appoint only medical laboratory scientists with requisite qualification and managerial training to head laboratories.

The statement also called on the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to de-bundle medical laboratory tariffs from consultation fees.

That, they said, would ensure adequate funding for laboratory regents and consumables to assure patients of quality diagnostic services at the health facilities.

It asked the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to rectify all outstanding issues about the migration of its members onto the Single Spine Pay Policy.