05 Mar 2015

The chief medical scientific officer in the Ministry of Health, Mr David Matema says his ministry’s objective is to provide quality health care to all the citizens and any other person seeking medical attention.

He said this at the accreditation ceremony of the Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital (NRH) laboratory by Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service (SADCAS) on March 3.

Mr Matema said quality was a priority to the ministry and it was why accreditation of laboratories and hospitals were in their strategic plan. He said so far the ministry had accredited NRH Laboratory, National TB Reference, Botswana HIV Reference, NRH HIV Reference and Bamalete Lutheran Hospital laboratories.

The official said according to their strategy, 15 laboratories would be accredited by the year 2019.

Furthermore, Mr Matema said NRH Laboratory, which was the first to be accredited by SADCAS in the country, started as a small lab offering basic tests and had since grown to provide services to NRH and the surrounding clinics. He said the NRH Lab also acted as a referral testing centre for lower hospitals in the region of the country. 

Mr Matema said the lab was pivotal in the provision of quality health care, disease surveillance, control of diseases and epidemics and the provision of safe blood transfusions.

He noted that the accreditation of the lab was important as it assured not only the service providers and the customers, but the whole nation and the world that the results that come out were of good quality and could be relied upon.

“Accreditation is an attestation by an independent body of international reputation that an organisation is competent to consistently produce quality results that meet the set standards,” he said. He implored the NRH Lab personnel to ensure that the facility continually and consistently provided quality service. 

“Therefore you cannot say now that you are accredited and everybody knows, you can then relax,” he said. Mr Matema said SADCAS had so far assessed and recommended accreditation of Sekgoma Memorial Hospital and Princess Marina Hospital Laboratories and the ministry was awaiting a final decision.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SADCAS, Ms Maureen Mutasa explained that the NRH Laboratory was granted accreditation on December 17, 2014 and was valid until December 16, 2019.

She said accreditation was not just about implementing a management system or working towards a set standard, but it was about policy makers embracing best practices and making it part of their culture.

Ms Mutasa explained that SADCAS would undertake periodic surveillance assessments through the validity period of the certificate in order to ensure maintenance of the accreditation.

She said the other six laboratories were accredited by South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) and would have to change to SADCAS because Botswana was within SADCAS operational boundaries. ENDS