By Maxwell Awumah
Ho, July 27, GNA-Professor Samuel Essien-Baidoo, Dean, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), has said the transformation of healthcare in the country would be incomplete without the full, informed and strategic involvement of laboratory (Lab) managers.
He said whether in support of the 24-hour health economy, leading primary healthcare diagnostics or driving evidence-based policy, the relevance of lab manager was unquestionable.
Prof Essien-Baidoo, also the President of Ghana Chapter of West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science (WAPCMLS), was delivering the keynote address at the two-day Fourth Annual General Meeting, 2025 of the Society of Medical Laboratory Managers, (SMLM)-Ghana, in Ho.
The AGM was on the theme: “Medical Laboratory Managers’ Involvement in the Core Management: A Necessity in Restructuring Healthcare Delivery in Ghana.”
He said, in addition to clinical diagnostic functions, medical lab outputs were essential in disease prognosis and surveillance as well as interventional health planning and providing the basis for health security and policymaking.
He noted that whereas the Ghana Health and Teaching Hospitals ACT 525 (1996) on regulatory framework acknowledged the incorporation of Laboratory Clinical Unit, this legal position had not been sufficiently implemented at the practicing sites, which is largely, affecting the integration of medical laboratory managers.
Prof Essien-Baidoo said the challenge of non-recognition and integration of the lab manager in hospital management compromised quality healthcare management practices and service delivery.
He called on government and health authorities to prioritise the integration processes to avert any untoward situations in the future.
Prof Samuel Akoriyea Kaba, Director-General, Ghana Health Services, said the theme for the AGM offered a clarion call to action, a reflection of collective understanding that a nation’s progress depended on inclusive leadership, interdisciplinary and evidence-based policy.
He said Ghana’s healthcare system like many others in Africa was faced with rising disease burden, limited financial resources, pressures of emerging epidemics, multi-drug resistant infections and challenges of retention of professionals, adding the GHS needed a team of lab managers and scientists to achieve universal health coverage (UHC).
He urged medical lab managers to deepen their engagements in policy, training, mentorship and innovation saying “Let your voice be strong but also strategic.”
Volta Regional Minister, Mr James Gunu, said the healthcare system could not operate optimally without a strong, well-integrated diagnostic foundation.
He observed that the laboratories were a critical pillar of evidence-based medicine, with over 70 per cent clinical diagnoses informed by laboratory data.
“You are at the forefront of innovations, from point-of-care testing to molecular diagnosis. Your input in management is crucial for integrating these technologies into national health priorities. Let us build a health system, where laboratory is not an after-thought, but a cornerstone.”
Executive Board Chairman, Dr David S. Sackey, announced that medical laboratory scientists had gone beyond the training of Diploma and Bachelor of Science (BSc) to training Doctors, of Medical Lab Science, Specialist and Consultants Medical Lab Scientists with the requisite leadership skills to manage health facilities in all capacities.
He said, “more importantly, we have over 100 consultants medical Lab scientists currently, manning laboratories, research institutions and academia in the country and beyond.”
Dr Eric Kofi Aidoo, President of Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS), said the lacuna created by not integrating Lab managers in mainstream management position hindered hospitals ability to develop direct technical and economic policy proposals, including service expansion, targeted recruitment, management of equipment and quality assurance that in medical laboratories.
He said there was the need for immediate and prompt attention to the situation.
The event was chaired for Togbe Afede, Agbogbmefia of Asogli State, who acknowledged the indispensable contribution of medical laboratory managers in the discharge of quality healthcare in the country.
GNA
Edited by: Maxwell Awumah/Christian Akorlie