GSA launches guidelines, standard for laboratory practice
The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) has launched implementation guidelines to effectively monitor the quality and competency of medical laboratory practice in the country.
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The authority, in collaboration with the Partnership for Healthcare Improvement (PHI), also launched a new laboratory standard, GS/ISO 15189: 2017, to ensure the implementation of quality standards in medical laboratories.
Essence of standard
Public laboratory facilities across the country will be provided with copies of the guidelines for implementation of the new laboratory standard.
The new ISO is a standard developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation, which mandates a set of requirements for the recognition of the quality and competence of medical laboratories.
Launching the two documents in Accra yesterday, the Director-General of the GSA, Professor Alex Dodoo, emphasised the need for medical laboratories in the country to conduct tests and come out with accurate results.
He said in modern medical care, the role of medical laboratories could not be overlooked as medical doctors relied on test results for the treatment of patients.
“Quality medical care, therefore, depends on reliable results that give relevant clues to what doctors are expected to look out for before administering any medication,” Prof. Dodoo submitted.
Samples credibility
The director-general indicated that the purpose of the GS/ISO 15189 would ensure that laboratories in Ghana came up with the same credible results from samples submitted for analysis.
The new standard, he added, was also to assist medical laboratories to not only develop their quality management systems, but also to help assess their own competence so that institutions that patronise laboratory services can use the standard to confirm the competence of such medical facilities.
PHI perspective
Commenting on the essential role laboratories played in health delivery, the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the PHI, Dr Samuel Duh, alluded to how poor quality laboratory services and unreliable rest results could lead to inappropriate action in healthcare services.
He added that, “Laboratory facilities of poor quality may lead to severe under detection of diseases, allowing epidemics to spread.”
Dr Duh stated that the US United States centre of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had been funding the PHI to support the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service to strengthen laboratory systems in Ghana.
He added that since 2015, his outfit had been implementing a five-year project funded by the CDC under the Global Health Security Agenda programme, an initiative born out of the outbreak of the Ebola virus in 2014.
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