MLSCN Cautions Against Operating Unaccredited Premises
The Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) is warning individuals that are interested in running medical laboratory premises in Nigeria to get their accreditation before opening such premises for public patronage.
It has warned that it won’t hesitate to shut down said premises and arrest individuals who are found to have been operating unaccredited laboratory premises in any location in the country.
Dr. Tosan Erhabor, Registrar of MLSCN, had given the warning at a presentation of ISO 15189: 2012 certificate of Accreditation to a newly established medical laboratory in Abuja and gave his assurance that the process is neither tedious nor cumbersome, urging the interested individuals to get accredited before operations to avoid punishment.
He then assured that MLSCN would not unnecessarily delay the accreditation of any facility/premises that have met the accreditation criteria.
Dr. Erhabor said that the time has come for every medical laboratory in the country to start benchmarking the 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.”
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He stated that currently, in some countries, no medical laboratory facility is allowed to operate without being accredited and added 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”.
While he reiterated the MLSCN’s commitment to supporting as many medical laboratories in the country that are willing to key into the process of accreditation, he also pointed out that the patients expect and deserve accurate and reliable medical laboratory results.
According to him, accreditation would 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.
The MLSCN’s recent accreditation of 14 facilities was also in keeping with Dr. Erhabor’s promise to turn around the health laboratory system. He recalled that Prof. Oyewole Tomori, the chairman of the Independent Advisory Committee, recently approved the accreditation of three new facilities whose assessments were completed by the MLSCN.
