24 Jan 2021

Diagnofirm Medical Laboratory has been awarded ISO 15189:2012 accreditation  certificate by Southern African Development Community Accreditation Services (SADCAS) after successfully passing the COVID-19 testing assessment. 

Presenting the accreditation certificate to the medical laboratory recently, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Edwin Dikoloti hailed the laboratory for successfully passing the Coronavirus Disease 2019 testing assessment by SADCAS. 

He highlighted that Botswana continued to register COVID-19 cases at an alarming rate, therefore diagnostic played a crucial role in the fight against the pandemic. 

He said Diagnofirm was one of the first privately owned Batswana firm laboratories that was approved for COVID-19 testing in Botswana by the Ministry of Health and Wellness. He said it went through a rigorous verification process by the National Health Laboratory of Botswana to be approved for testing. 

Dr Dikoloti indicated that it was encouraging that Diagnofirm had even gone further to seek accreditation for testing COVID-19 and thus becoming the first laboratory to be accredited by SADC for ISO 15189:2012 in the SADC region. 

Dr Dikoloti explained that laboratories around the world operated within a defined procedures and established standards. He pointed out that for Diagnofirm to go through accreditation process, showed that they would like to ensure that reliable results were issued out for management of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Diagnofirm Medical Laboratory adds another badge on the quality of the results” he said. 

Dr Dikoloti further encouraged other laboratories to follow suit, noting that Diagnofirm was the first lab to be accredited for laboratory testing in Botswana, starting with ISO 17025, and then ISO 15189, adding that they had even gone further to extend their scope with the inclusion of SARS-Cov-2 testing. 

SADCAS CEO, Ms Maureen Mutasa said accreditation to 1SO 15 189 was a vital tool for medical laboratories to improve quality, performance, efficiency and reliability. She indicated that reliable test results strengthened community confidence in test results, adding that in COVID -19 era, there was a need for fast and accurate testing as authorities used test data to make decisions on lockdown, surveillance and monitoring impact of initiatives aimed at preventing spread of the disease. ends