Posted on: Thu 18-07-2024

The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has decried inadequate manpower nationwide. AMLSN President, Dr Casmir Ifeanyi, who made the call in Abuja, said Nigeria presently have about 150, 000 medical laboratory professionals for its 220 million population, which is grossly inadequate for the country.

Out of the number, 50, 000 are medical laboratory scientists, 70, 000 medical laboratory technicians and about 30, 000 medical laboratory assistants.

“We cannot pride ourselves as the most populous Black Country on earth, a nation with over 220 million and we don’t have enough human resources for health, particularly medical laboratory workforce. By and large, if you take 50, 000 as a reciprocal of 220 million populations, we have grossly inadequate manpower for medical laboratory workforce. However, we will not sacrifice number at the altar of quality of training and training facilities.”

The group also called for review of the medical laboratory science degree curriculum in tertiary institutions to comply with cutting edge technology, knowledge and global best practices.

According to him, the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) has approved a uniform curriculum for the Medical Laboratory Science Doctor degree (MLSD) and prescribed minimum qualification for training of persons wishing to practice medical laboratory science as a profession within the sub region.

“The Minister of Health of Nigeria sits in WAHO, it means whatever the organisation has adopted becomes domesticated in Nigeria. I want the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC) to expeditiously make it minimum for every university, private and public providing training in medical laboratory science to bench mark the qualification on MLSD, so that it can be in consonance with the prescription of WAHO, equivalent to what is obtainable in Canada, UK, USA and New Zealand.”

Ifeanyi lamented that despite the country’s Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) degree curriculum was developed 16 years ago, and has upgraded to advance curriculum for provision of highly skilled manpower in tune with cutting edge technology, there exist ill-trained personnel.

He appealed to Federal Ministry of Education to scrutinise the qualifications from neighbouring countries where most of these people are alleged to have trained.

“I am concerned because my primary duty as the leader of the medical laboratory science profession in Nigeria is that of quality and patient’s safety. I will not compromise on anything that bothers on quality and patient’s safety because if you have ill-trained personnel deployed, he will do worse than a quack because he will be operating under the covert of a licensor.

“It is important that we review the approvals from people who were trained abroad. The places they go to train abroad need to come under proper scrutiny because the training facilities we have in Nigeria and human resources are top notch. I am particularly happy with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) scrutiny process for foreign graduates, it is commendable and I will want the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria to copy it.”

By Nkechi Onyedika-Ugoeze

Guardian News

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