Government has pledged to henceforth support the private laboratories in efforts towards boosting service delivery in the health care sector.
The pronouncement was made by Susan Nabadda, the Executive Director, Uganda National Health Laboratory Services at the Ministry of Health, during the launch of the C-Lab at International Hospital Kampala (IHK) on Tuesday.
“As you may be aware, Laboratory services are essential for the delivery of quality health care and should be made available to all the people in Uganda. Poor laboratory services subject patients to inappropriate/useless tests and thus treatments, and wastage of the scarce resources through high out-of-pocket and Government expenditures. Wrong diagnosis means wrong treatment or no treatment will be given, and the patient’s condition may actually become worse with possible loss of life,” Nabadda said.
Nabadda Speaking at the a launch at IHK in Namuwongo Kampala.
A well-functioning medical laboratory service, she said, provides accurate diagnosis and ensures that patients are treated in a timely manner on the basis of a correct diagnosis which promotes better management of diseases, and faster recovery.
Efforts to strengthen lab services in Uganda
In the year 2009, the Health Ministry developed and published the Uganda National Health Laboratory Services Policy.
“The policy aims to provide a framework for ensuring that the laboratory services in Uganda are strengthened at each level of healthcare delivery in terms of infrastructure, instrumentation, list of tests, personnel, training, and regulatory issues, etc so as to adequately support the effective and efficient delivery of the Uganda National Minimum Health Care Package (UNMHCP) to all people in Uganda, as advocated by the National Health Policy,” she said
In line with this policy, Nabadda said, the MoH with partners, is continuing to strengthen labs in hospitals (National Referral Regional Referral District and Health centre IIIs and IVs).
“Additionally, MoH has greatly strengthened the stand-alone National labs such as the NHLS lab for Hep B viral load, and the National TB Lab both located at Butabika Kampala,” she said.
She added, “We understand that C-lab is going to provide an international platform with pathologists from Mauritius, France and other European countries to occasionally consult with and support the specialists here. This innovation will enable our people to have an opportunity to access quality diagnostic services via the wide network of clinics spread-out in the 17 locations around the country.”
Nabadda touring the C-lab at IHK in Kampala
The launched Ultra-Modern Laboratory facility (C-Labs) will offer services including; Tumour Makers, Hormonal Tests, Vitamins, Cardiac Makers, Real-time-PCR COVID-19, Immunohistochemistry (IHC), Hereditary Cancer Panels, Routine Tests, Viral Markers, Sexual Health Screen tests, Pregnancy testing and semen Analysis among others.
Speaking at the event, Sukhmeet Sandhu, the CEO of the International Medical Group said that IMG Institutions continue to improve and evolve to meet the needs of the patients.
“Our team is passionate and extremely driven about delivering quality and timely services. The laboratory team consists of highly experienced pathologists, medical technologists, medical technicians, lab assistants, microbiologists, and other specialists, all working collaboratively, “he said.