Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
LEGISLATION TO provide for the establishment of a Medical Laboratories Council to regulate and control the activities of medical laboratories and collection centres across the island was passed in the Senate on Friday.
Leader of Government Business Senator Burchell Whiteman piloted the Health Facilities (Medical Laboratories) Act in the Senate two weeks ago.
The debate on the legislation was closed on Friday with Opposition Senator Shirley Williams making her contribution to the debate. She said the bill was long overdue.
ACCREDITATION BODY
Senator Williams, however, pointed out that while the bill provides for a licensing of medical laboratories there was the need to have a national accreditation body, which she said was critical to the country.
She said the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology had an excellent programme, the National Infrastructure Quality Programme, which is aimed at establishing a national accreditation body.
"The serious implications are that the countries to which our products are exported is at liberty to detain our products, which they have done. They could say they do not recognise our testing facilities," she said.
"We must work with the Ministry of Commerce to ensure that body becomes a must." she argued. "It pains me to know that we lag behind the rest of the Caribbean, namely Cuba and Trinidad, when we have, in my view, some of the best qualified persons here."
Senator Williams also called for an urgent rehabilitation of public laboratory facilities.
Of note, she said, was the absence of a public laboratory at the country's largest hospital, the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH).
"What is happening is that the samples are collected on-site and sent elsewhere to be analysed. That is not acceptable ... I call on the Minister of Finance to treat with some urgency, some funding for the Kingston Public Hospital so that it can have on site laboratory facilities," she said.
REGIONAL PROJECT
Responding to these concerns, Senator Whiteman said there was currently a regional project, which is working with the standards body in Trinidad and Tobago to form the regional accreditation body, which would apply the ISO Standards across CARICOM.
"It is important for us to move from the certification and licensing to the next stage of accreditation and certainly this is a step in the right direction," he said.
There are currently 51 medical laboratories and 77 collection centres or testing sites in Jamaica.
