Before You Blame The Doctor

More often than not, we blame the doctor for every treatment failure we have.  We tend to overlook the role the medical laboratory scientists play in the health care delivery. Most of the reasons for the all- round tripping medical tourism being experienced in the country today could be linked to the poor medical treatment. Many Nigerians have lost confidence in the ability of the Nigerian doctors to treat them well so they’d rather go to the foreign land where they believe things cannot go wrong to get the desired care.  However, we sometimes forget that the basis or bedrock for any treatment is test or diagnosis and that a doctor’s evaluation or judgment is based on that.  And pray, tell, what happens if a patient gets a misdiagnosis from the lab? Your guess is as good as mine.

Now, it’s a global world. Times are changing so also are the ways we used to do things. Gone is the old order for the new one.

Perhaps, knowing the importance of their  work to a patient, , the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), announced that it was  to collaborate with John Hopkins University and Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) , to implement a web-based Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

According to the registrar/ chief executive officer, MLSCN,  Prof Anthony Emeribe, the project named K4 Health/ Nigeria Web- based Continuing Professional Development Programme (CPD) for Nigerian laboratory professionals is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded seed project providing opportunities for medical laboratory scientists to continuously improve their knowledge, update and sharpen old skills and acquire new ones.     He said this was to ensure that medical laboratory scientists remain at the cutting edge of professional knowledge and competence to render accurate and reliable diagnostic laboratory services to the patient and the society.

Emeribe noted that as a responsible association, he was urging his members to cultivate the habit of pursuit of excellence in professional practice in the interest of the patient and the society.

He said that through this programme,  the association in conjunction with Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria(MLSCN) is launching a vanguard for mandatory professional medical laboratory education for every medical laboratory scientist in Nigeria.

“Nigerians will benefit tremendously from this project due to enhanced access to CPD which will result in improved skill and proficiency of laboratory professionals,” Emeribe said.

The association also reiterated its call for the introduction and incorporation of laboratory services at the primary health care level in Nigeria.

The president of the association, Dr Goodswill  C.Okara, said that the practice of treating every patient that complains of fever for malaria or typhoid is antiquated, saying, “our people in the rural areas are deserving of appropriate laboratory services in the 21st century.”

He said every medical laboratory scientist will henceforth show evidence of having acquired a specified minimum number of credits before renewal of practicing licence in a given year.

According to him, without fulfilling the minimum number of credits, practicing licence will not be issued by the council.