By Dickens Wasonga.
The government has put on notice all those who operate sub standard or illegal medical laboratories countrywide.
The minister for medical services Prof. Anyang Nyongo said the medical laboratory technologists and technicians board will conduct inspections throughout the country and will shut down laboratories which are not licensed to operate by the board and prosecute the owners.
He said quacks have put up all manner of shanties operating as medical labs where they con unsuspecting members of the public huge sums of money and the crackdown will catch up with them
Speaking at the KEMRI Campus in Kisumu the minister who led a high powered team of medical doctors from his ministry including the Director of Medical services Dr. Francis Kimani to inspect the recently accredited labs at the Kisian center said that even public hospitals and health centers whose labs are found to be wanting will not be spared during the crackdown that will begin next month.
The minister said quality of health care provision can not be obtained unless health facilities operate laboratories which conform to set standard that will ensure diseases are fast and accurately diagnosed before treatment is delivered.
Nyongo said many patients lose their lives because of wrong diagnosis of their medical conditions because the labs were either substandard or due to fake reagents used to carry out investigations and warned that the trend must be reversed urgently.
” Quacks who stock ink and pose as though they are selling genuine lab reagents or other lab equipments through out the country have their days numbered. We must do a thorough clean up exercise to weed them out because of the danger they pose to the health of our citizens.” said prof. Nyongo.
He also asked research institutions like KEMRI/CDC to adopt laboratories operated by public health facilities situated in remote areas to help improve their capacities in terms of infrastructure development.
Nyongo called upon the board to make sure the laboratory technicians and technologists together with pathologists work under one unit to for ease of coordination and supervision.
He also asked them to continuously further their education to be up to date with the modern trend in medicine.
The Director of medical services said there was great need to ensure accuracy of lab results adding that malaria which continue to kill millions of people especially amongst children below five years in sub Saharan Africa was the most misdiagnosed in most hospitals whether in private or public facilities.
He disclosed that 75 lab inspectors will be trained from May to in monitoring and supervise the activities of the medical labs countrywide.
The DMS said a total of 21 medical labs will also be accredited after they met the set standards of the World Health Organization.
” Good laboratory systems and services are critical and we must strive to attain this goal” said the DMS
The trainings which will be done by the government in partnership with the University of Maryland will contribute to strengthening laboratory services across the country and to better health care systems.
Those who graced the occasion included,the KEMRI Kisian director Dr. John Vulule, CDC division of Global HIV/AIDS director Dr. Nancy Knight,Provincial director of medical services Nyanza Dr. Ojwang Lusi and others.
ENDS.