GLOOM OVER HEALTH CARE (SEPT 1, 2009)

THE lack of a law to enforce guidelines, standards and codes of practice on private medical laboratories sends shivers down the spines of Ghanaians so far as the quality of health care in the country is concerned.
The immediate past President of the Association of Private Medical Laboratories (APML), Mr Otuo Adade-Boateng, who raised the issue in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, said the absence of regulation was also hampering the fight against HIV and AIDS because there was the possibility of being diagnosed of having contracted the pandemic when that was not the case and vice versa.
The lack of legislation to regulate the operation of private medical laboratories has opened the floodgates for any individual with or without the know-how but is desirous of entering the business to establish a medical laboratory without any licence or authorisation.
Although quite late in the day, we have been told that the Ministry of Health is in the process of developing guidelines, standards and codes of practice to regulate private medical laboratories in the country under an Allied Health Bill.
Our worry is that a number of people may have lost their lives due to wrong diagnoses from sub-standard laboratories in the country.
But knowing how long it takes for bills to be passed in this country, do we have to wait any further before something is done about the situation?
The Daily Graphic thinks that in the interim, steps must be taken to put in place a regulatory body to handle the situation, since the issue has to do with life and death.
Already some health professionals have described the trend as a very dangerous phenomenon which must be regulated immediately to ensure that unlicensed health facilities do not qualify as service providers under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and put the health of premium holders at risk.
We are told that if someone belonging to one blood group was transfused with another type of blood, he or she would die within an hour.
This is a serious matter which should receive the attention of the authorities immediately, instead of the lukewarm approach to the mushrooming of private laboratories in the country.
If for any reason we are unable to act on a number of issues with despatch in the past, we should now see the danger signals when the challenge concerns the health of the people.
The good news is that without waiting for a bill to be passed, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has begun an exercise to evaluate its accredited health facilities, which include laboratories.
When that is done, the authority can save the lives of its clients and in addition save the scheme from unnecessary claims for wrong diagnoses, which usually lead to wrong and expensive prescriptions.
The Daily Graphic believes that the gloom and doom that apparently hang over our health service as a result of the operators of fake medical laboratories can give way to a bright future, if the axe is made to fall on those who breach the standards and regulations, as well as their collaborators in the Ghana Health Service or Ministry of Health.
It is about time our public officials who are paid by the taxpayer to run the country’s health services sat up and acted decisively to save lives.