Experts Seek Regulation For Establishment Of Clinical Laboratories

Experts in the health sector have called for the enactment of legislation for stipulation of minimum standards for the establishment and running of clinical laboratories.

They made the call at the 8th Biennial Scientific Conference, organised by the Association of Clinical Chemists of Nigeria (ACCN) in Abuja on Thursday.

The theme of the conference is; “Challenges of Contemporary Clinical Chemistry And Laboratory Medicine Practice In Nigeria.”

A former Chief Medical Director of the University of Port Harcourt teaching hospital, Prof. Aaron Ojule suggested establishment of a regulatory body for registration, licencing and oversight of clinical laboratories.

Ojule, who was the keynote speaker
said clinical laboratories produce results which are used by doctors to treat patients so the results are supposed to be accurate, reliable and timely to influence clinical result.

“What we are doing currently in Nigeria I’m not sure of the accuracy of our results and we have done a study to prove this, different laboratories saying different things on the same clinical specimen so need to work on it.

“That’s why we need these regulatory bodies to make sure that our labs are of good quality and standard and there are prescribes international standard to run clinical laboratories but they are not implementing these standard in Nigeria,” he said.

The president of ACCN and Congress Chair, Prof. Joseph Ahaneku emphasised the need for synergy among the professionals and certification of practitioners.

“In the practice of Clinical Chemistry and clinical pathology we have interplay of very high level man power personnel in the laboratory and the medical professionals

“But because of the way we do things especially in the country here people work in silence

“We are having this conference to close the gap so that there will be synergy, cooperation and interaction between various professional bodies that have been legislated and for us to also commence a new conversation,” he said.

Also speaking, former deputy governor of Kano, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar urged professional bodies collaborate and operate together so as to minimise the professional rivalry.

In his welcome address, the Chairman, Scientific Committee, Prof. John Anetor also stressed the need for collaboration and bringing together expertise and skills from diverse fields.

“Very importantly, this conference gives us an elegant opportunity to renew our call to the government, to provide good governance that guarantees an enabling environment which allows us to discharge our scientific and professional obligation to the patient and society.

“Good governance goes with appropriate funding that makes the service provided and research conducted at par with the best anywhere. This in turn contributes to a robust economy by stemming medical tourism,” he added.