Tosan Erhabor, the registrar of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), says the council has registered 40,523 qualified medical laboratory scientists in Nigeria.

On Sunday, he told journalists in Abuja that “out of the number, 15,358 are in good standing, currently having 2023 licence.”

MLSCN is a federal government statutory regulatory agency established by Act 11 of 2003 as a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Health, charged with regulating medical laboratory services by registering and licencing medical laboratories and practitioners.

Mr Erhabor said the council recommended that the federal government make accreditation mandatory for better outcome of laboratory results.

He said accreditation ensures service providers adhere to standards and generate comparable quality results using international standards.

According to him, accreditation is voluntary for now.

Mr Erhabor, however, explained that there was only accreditation with evidence of Quality Management System (QMS) implementation.

He said the council also granted accreditation to medical laboratories in line with ISO 15189, following the provisions of its statutory mandate as contained in Act 11, Cap M25, LFN (2004) to regulate medical laboratory practice and education in Nigeria.

He said the provision provided for the council to set up the MLSCN Laboratory Accreditation Service, which has attained an associate membership status with the International Laboratory Accreditation Corporation (ILAC).

“This is to give international recognition and acceptance to all facilities accredited by MLSCN,’’ Mr Erhabor said.

The registrar said that besides the training and certification of QMS mentors to prepare laboratories for accreditation, the council also holds advocacies.

“We also embark on advocacy visits to both public and private medical laboratories to sensitise them on the benefits of accreditation and create incentives through special recognitions and conditional waivers for accredited facilities.

“So far, the council has granted ISO 15189 accreditation to 14 deserving medical laboratories in Nigeria and has conducted more than 100 baseline assessments for facilities preparatory to accreditation.

“Also, MLSCN has approved 3,912 private medical laboratories across the country and inspected 1,908 medical laboratories.

“In a nutshell, accreditation of medical laboratories is a work in progress, and it will certainly get better,” he stated.

(NAN)