Nineteen Medical Laboratory Scientists from nine public and private facilities have received training in Quality Management System and Internal Auditing.
Participants were drawn from the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital, Transitions, 37 Military Hospital, Public Health Reference Laboratory- Sekondi, Ho Teaching Hospital, Pentecost Hospital, FOCOS Orthopedic Hospital, and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital
The programme which is aimed at improving the quality of medical laboratory services in the country has become more relevant in an era of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although Medical Laboratory plays a very integral role in the efforts at improving quality and safety of care outcomes at various health facilities, many Laboratory Scientists are yet to be trained and become conversant with international accreditation standards such as the ISO 15189:2012.
It is estimated that less than 10 medical laboratories (including public and private) in Ghana have full ISO 15189:2012 international accreditation or any other accreditation.
It is against this background that the Africa Institute of Healthcare Quality Safety & Accreditation (AfIHQSA) and the Quality and Accreditation Institute (QAI) in India have come together to equip Medical Laboratory Scientists with the requisite knowledge and competencies in quality management systems and internal audit to complement efforts of other stakeholders in the health care delivery chain.
Obed, a participant from the 37 Military Hospital said ” 37 is already an ISO Certified Lab but there is room for improvement. So I will go and help my colleagues to understand the principles that were not taken into account. This course will help me to engage more than I used to engage in the maintenance of our quality principles.”
Another participant said “This has been a great learning experience especially with the hands-on examples, that has really helped and going back, I will be able to describe the non-conformities and name them appropriately.”
Shalom, a participant from the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital , responding to how the training has helped noted that “I have been looking for this programme for long and my prayer is that it will come often so that all our labs will be certified. I have learned that audit is not fault-finding but helping laboratories to improve.”
This year’s edition is the 5th session since 2019 and about 35 Medical Laboratory Scientists from public and private facilities in Ghana have been trained across the country with facilitators of the programme including Dr. B.K Rana CEO, QAI- India; Dr Gilbert Buckle, a Public Health Physician and Consultant in Health Systems; Raymond Donbezier Fatchu, Director of Frayd Consulting; and Dr. Elom Hillary Otchi, Technical Director of AfIHQSA.
