The professional rivalry between doctors and medical laboratory scientists may not be over yet, with medical directors in Nigeria saying they do not want laboratories under their purview to be supervised by the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria.

 

The President of the Guild of Medical Directors, Dr. Tony Philips, expressed these feelings during an interview with journalists in Abuja.

 

According to him, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, not the MLSCN, has the right to supervise laboratories operated by doctors in hospitals; and warns that medical laboratory scientists cannot take over that mandate.

 

Philips said, “When the MLSCN was established, their members wanted to impose themselves on doctors, claiming that they have the right to supervise laboratories in hospitals, which is not possible. You can only supervise your own team members. We do not go to their establishments to regulate their practice; so, why should they try that with us?

 

“Most of our specialties don’t know the limit of their functions. The MLSCN should adhere strictly to the regulation of laboratories. Any hospital that has a laboratory is being supervised by the MDCN. The MDCN has been very clear on this with the notice they sent out last year.

 

“Do you want a doctor who has a patient to begin to run out to look for a laboratory scientist when you have a laboratory which can easily run what you want and give you instant result?”

 

 

Also speaking on recent efforts to rebase the economy, Philips said it would stop the flow of grants from donor agencies

 

Philips said, “There is an issue now in Nigeria; because of the rebasing of her economy, many of the donor countries that are giving grants for the supply of vaccines are insisting that ‘since you are saying that you are the largest economy now, your economy is more than $500bn, we are not going to be able to support you because we only support relatively poor countries.’

 

“So, many more people will now have to contribute more to ensure that these vaccines are available. So, to make the MDGs successful, everybody must work towards its success.”

 

Philips said, “We have high number of infant mortality in the country. We were almost achieving 100 percent in our immunisation rate during the time of Prof. Beko Ransome-Kuti, but unfortunately, we withdrew. Now, the coverage rate has improved and we are almost at the stage of being declared polio-free.”

 

BY: FRIDAY OLOKOR

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