The Deputy Chief Executive for Operations of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Senanu Kwesi Djokoto, has urged medical laboratory scientists to take a leading role in the implementation of the Free Primary Health Care (FPHC) programme by ensuring quality and reliable diagnostic services.
He said the programme prioritised the early detection of hypertension, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases, making accurate laboratory testing essential to effective primary health care.
“A screening that is not followed up by a reliable confirmation, actually, helps no one,” he said, urging laboratory scientists to champion diagnostic quality at the primary care level.
Dr Djokoto made the call when he delivered the keynote address at the 6th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Ghana Chapter of the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science (WAPCMLS).
He urged the College to establish and enforce professional standards to ensure that laboratories in facilities accredited by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) produced reliable and clinically useful results.
Research and efficiency
Speaking on the theme, “Advancing Primary Health Care through Postgraduate Education, Research, Innovation and Effective Governance,” Dr Djokoto urged the College to develop a research agenda focusing on diagnostic access, appropriate test use and value for money to guide health service purchasing.
He said the Authority was ready to fund research that would improve its efficiency as a strategic health purchaser.
Equitable access to specialists
Dr Djokoto also called on the College to prioritise the equitable distribution and retention of specialists, stressing that access to specialist expertise should not be limited to major hospitals and urban centres.
“Primary care does not need specialist or advanced laboratory equipment in every facility. What it means is organised access to specialist expertise, and one well-trained laboratory scientist can lift access across a whole cluster of facilities,” he said.
Diagnostics critical to health security
For his part, the Director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases, Dr Joseph Adjetey Oliver-Commey, who represented the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), described the theme as timely and relevant.
He said a resilient health system depended on strong primary health care supported by high-quality diagnostic services.
According to him, medical laboratory science had evolved beyond a supporting discipline to become a strategic pillar of health care, disease surveillance, health security, precision medicine and Universal Health Coverage.
Citing COVID-19, recurrent outbreaks of cholera, Ebola and Lassa fever, antimicrobial resistance and the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, Dr Oliver-Commey said the challenges demonstrated the indispensable role of diagnostics in effective health care.
“Every unnecessary antibiotic prescribed, every delayed diagnosis of tuberculosis, every missed case of cervical cancer, every undetected diabetic complication carries enormous human and economic cost,” he said.
He stressed that laboratory medicine must be recognised as critical national infrastructure.
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