28 Aug 2015

Chief executive officer of Southern African Development Committee Accreditation Service (SADCAS), Ms Maureen Mutasa, has emphasised the importance of a competent and efficient operation of a medical laboratory in any health care delivery system.

Speaking at the accreditation of Sekgoma Memorial Hospital laboratory in Serowe recently, Ms Mutasa noted that a number of African countries had recognised the importance of medical laboratory services as an integral part of health delivery system, and had in their policies, embraced accreditation as a strategy for the competence of medical laboratories.

Therefore, she said the accreditation of Sekgoma Memorial Hospital laboratory was assurance to patients, service providers, and customers that the come out results were of good quality and could be relied upon.

Ms Mutasa said the focus on delivery excellence within the health care sector is underpinned by accreditation.

She said accreditation supports and delivers the aim of consistent high quality care with reliable outcomes that patients could trust, and provide peace of mind that the services would meet expectations.

Ms Mutasa further stated that Sekgoma Memorial Hospital laboratory was the 10^th medical laboratory in the country to be accredited by the multi economy accreditation body SADCAS.

She said the laboratory has been accredited in the scopes of virology, haemotology, microbiology, blood bank, chemistry and serology in accordance with ISO 15189.

The hospital was also granted a unique accreditation number MED 010 indicating that Sekgoma Memorial  Hospital laboratory was a SADCAS accredited medical laboratory.

Ms Mutasa alluded to the fact that accreditation certificate is only valid for five years.She indicated that a number of countries had recognised the importance of medical laboratory services.

“Programmes have been put in place to assist medical laboratories to implement ISO 15189 such as the programmes that the Botswana Ministry of health has in place,” she said.

For his part, the chief medical scientific officer in the Ministry of Health, Mr David Matema said their main objective was to provide quality health care for all citizens, and any other person seeking medical attention or information.

He said quality was of high priority to them, and that is why they had put accreditation of laboratories and hospital in their strategic plans.Mr Matema said the Sekgoma Memorial Hospital laboratory is one of the seven Ministry of Health laboratories that had been accredited.

He said the laboratory just like others in the country, started as a small laboratory in the old Sekgoma offering basic tests and manned mainly by assistants and a few laboratory technicians.

Today, Mr Matema said the laboratory had grown to offer specialised testing using complex state of art equipment and specialised staffing. He reiterated that laboratory accreditation is important in assuring their customers that the results that come out of the laboratories were of good quality and could be relied upon.

Mr Matema said that was the reason they embarked on a journey to ensure that their laboratories met quality requirements.

Meanwhile, the head of laboratory at Sekgoma Memorial Hospital, Ms Keoratile Ntshambiwa said the Quality Management System in the laboratories was motivated by the demand for timely, accurate and reliable results. She said to improve the quality of the laboratory results, the ministry started establishing the national quality assurance programme for the laboratories in the country in accordance with the national and international standards.

Ms Ntshambiwa said some of the laboratory staff were trained in understanding and documentation of ISO 15189, as part of the initiative to meet the requirements of the quality management system. Ends