Bisola Alli
HEALTH workers under the aegis of the Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (MLSN) have renewed their commitment to ensuring that quackery becomes a thing of the past in the country.
This was made known at the associations’ annual public health lecture series and national induction/investiture of West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science (WAPCMLS), held recently in Lagos.
Speaking on the main theme of the event: “Enterprise Opportunities: National Health and Economy”, the president of the association, Dr. Bassey Enya Bassey, said that MLSN was determined to address the myriads of public health challenges facing Nigeria. He said that this was with a view to promote public health and the contribution of medical laboratory in responding to disease outbreak and response.
“With other sub-themes which are: “Building Young Entrepreneurs: Challenges and Opportunities” and “Health Enterprise and Development Economy”, a lot can be achieved with healthy synergy. Entrepreneurs are change agents in the society who adopt a mission to create and sustain economic value; engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaption and learning.
“Entrepreneurial training would serve as an incubator for public health innovation and enterprise. Business start-up risks and costs could be mitigated by providing expert guidance and advice along the way, including professional networking and exhibiting a heightened sense of responsibility,” Bassey said.
Stressing on the need to eradicating quackery from the industry, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), Dr. Tosan Erhabor, said that the council would not relent in checking quackery across the country.
“He said that the body was working towards achieving zero tolerance to unwholesome practices.
“We have visited 14 states to see the quality of laboratories in –place. At the moment, we have quacks being tried in the high court. We will continue to try erring persons, whether medical laboratory scientists or charlatans. This is to sanitise the system.
“The state of the laboratory is not where is supposed to be, but we as regulators are working round the clock to see that there is a tremendous improvement.
“In the past, there was no laboratory to diagnose Lassa fever in Nigeria, but now we can boast of that.
“On June 1, the MLSCN will roll out a policy on quality management system, which will be the minimum requirement for any laboratory to practise in Nigeria, both public and private. With this policy, it is either you get it or you don’t practise. Every laboratory must be accredited because this is the right way to go.
We want to have more facilities accredited so that there would be better result from diagnosis. It is beyond mounting equipment; we are also looking at putting it to use to see whether it is in line with manufacturer’s specifications,” Erhabor said.
He said that the effective implementation of universal health coverage could only be achieved when the right people are selected to manage the system.