National lab service in healthy state

14 December 2015 - 03:05 By Staff reporter

With more than 270 labs, the work of the National Health Laboratory Service continues to change the face of healthcare in South Africa. The service is one of the world's largest diagnostic laboratories and the largest in Africa.It is the sole provider of diagnostic pathology services to public facilities in the country and provides services to 80% of the population.These services include epidemiology, surveillance and outbreak response activities, CD4 testing, viral load studies and HIV treatment monitoring, tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment monitoring, and screening for cervical cancer.Earlier this year a senior doctor at a Gauteng academic hospital said the number of errors in the results of national health laboratory services tests had "rocketed".But according to the service's CEO, Joyce Mogale this is "false" and "baseless"."This is nothing short of malice intent to discredit," she said in response to the claim.According to Mogale, the service ensures accurate results through several procedures.These include:Using internal and external quality controls;Making sure laboratory equipment is validated, maintained daily and operated by qualified and experienced medical technologists; andOnce the samples are tested, the results are reviewed by biomedical technologists and pathologists prior to the results being issued."The NHLS is the consecutive winner of two globally recognised awards for quality of test results," Mogale said, adding that this was just one of a string of awards for its commitment to quality. ..

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