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Job Osazuwa
Health workers under the auspices of West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science (WAPCMLS) have tasked the governments of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to make available modern health care facilities for better service delivery.
WAPCMLS said if governments in the region provide adequate and high-tech facilities for medical practitioners, it would make their job easy and for the benefit of the patients. Speaking at the induction/investiture of the group’s Foundation Fellows and 2020 annual congress of the college, held recently in Lagos, the registrar, Dr. Godswill C. Okara, said the body would enable members to harmonise standard of training in the countries and to enhance quality practice.
The theme of the congress was: ‘The Role of Medical Laboratory Professionals in the Successful Implementation of Universal Health Coverage in the ECOWAS Region’, which he described as apt considering the urgent need for more accessibility to health care services.
He said that services in the profession would now be more centred on patient-satisfaction, which would be addressed through efficiency and effectiveness. He added that it was a platform to collaborate, cooperate and synergise the practitioners’ functions with other key players in the health sector.
He said that when the practice is improved upon, Africans would no longer leave the region for medical tourism to seek services from elsewhere.
He added that the ECOWAS region has the manpower and capability to address its health challenges but only when the right infrastructure is on ground.
“We also use this opportunity to call on the governments in the ECOWAS region to be responsive to their duties and obligations of governance. They must provide the enabling environment and make facilities available to enable our professionals to give out their best.
“Many of us studied outside our region, and we distinguished ourselves among other citizens even from developed countries.”
