‘Strengthening medical laboratory practice critical to improving care’

Chigbu also said that the issue of engaging untrained none medical laboratory personnel in carrying out medical laboratory diagnosis should not exist “as faster testing menu does not always lead to better patient outcome.”These were part of his submissions while delivering the 45th Inaugural Lecture of the university titled “Point Of Care Testing And Patient Care Delivery: A Paradigm Shift.”

He defined Point- of – Care Testing (POCT) as testing of patients’ specimens at the point where Care is given or located, adding that this new testing menu required that laboratory testing be moved to the patients bedside, pharmacy, the physician’s office, the patient’s home and other laboratory sites.

Medical laboratory practice according to him, is very vital in human existence especially in disease diagnosis hence he described as noteworthy that medical laboratory practice like other arms of the healthcare delivery system, is very dynamic and may experience rapid changing environment.

According to him, “as the standard of practice changes, as technological advancement evolves and as the economics of healthcare continue to change, medical laboratory practitioners will be challenged to look for new approaches to fulfill the mission and goals of the profession.”To improve overall healthcare systems goal, he recommended among others, that medical laboratory leaders should be trained and laboratory departments within the Ministry of Health should be empowered and supported with defined budgets to work through accreditation.

Another is early and greater medical laboratory involvement in the planning stage of programs designs as “often, medical laboratory input in the ministry of health is sought only after programme manager’s planning is quite advanced or near the execution stage.”He urged the public to among the numerous quantum of knowledge they should take home from his lecture is “the fact that core medical laboratory practice is still complex in some areas, and in considering the specificity of medical laboratory activities, infrastructure development, equipment installation, training and initiation of operations generally would require more time than many other aspect of healthcare system.”