Benedicta Mansah Mallet’s take on Medical Laboratory Profession.

Medical laboratory profession isn’t about just producing lab results like robots oo, intellectual inputs are involved so if we go on strike for better condition of service (after years of round the table negotiations which has yield no results) that will help us provide the services Ghanaians deserve and you allow just anybody to take your sample then don’t blame anyone if problems arises. It’s your life. Common reagents to work with its a challenge In this country, servicing of equipments and importation of modern equipments that can enable trained professionals carry out similar test that your samples are sent at a huge cost to South Africa for is a problem. About 8 departments are required to function at the laboratory sections of every health institution in the country but only three are common to found with only the teaching hospitals and regional hospitals have all the required departments. We use faulty microscope that requires straining the eyes to identify microorganisms causing diseases, many lab professionals develop eye problems but who cares? Substandard reagents are purchased for us to use on patient’s samples and when we refuse to work with it, serious victimization takes place which we’ve resisted till now. At the end of every month our results are keyed into a data which public health personnels use to advice stakeholders on condition of diseases that are endemic. How come private labs can afford some of these equipments and reagents such that most test are sent to them yet Ghana Health Service isn’t concerned that if those tests are run in government facilities the profit from it can build a new clinic somewhere in Ghana every six months. Yes we generate alot of money for the hospital but our salary grading has not been revised in a very long time. You think we are insensitive by going on strike but the injustice being meted out to a patient because we lack necessary logistics needs to stop. Hospital works runs on team work, we don’t cross work into other professionals field because we are each trained differently. Conducting a test is beyond machines revealing results and test kits revealing reactions, there are other test carried out to confirm results before giving it out. A simple lab request for full blood count test from us can result in us doing blood film comment to verify results so a doctor can know exactly what’s wrong. Nobody instructs us to do the confirmatory test, its part of our training. We always go extra mile of quality controls and series of confirmatory test before a result is given out, so if you think a casual worker, or someone from a different medical profession can produce correct result for you in our absence then go ahead and give your sample, yes pay for a death sentence to your health