Doctors, Lab Scientists Bicker Over CBN Circular

A dispute is already brew
ing between the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) over the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) circular authorising Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) to approve licenses for the importation of In-vitro Diagnostics (IVDs).
The recently elected President of NMA, Dr Kayode Obembe, had in an open letter to President Godluck Jonathan warned that the circular would set a “dangerous trend in the nation’s health sector.”
According to him, the circular is very dangerous; it is completely wrong that one would have to go to the MLSCN to get approval in order to import medical laboratory equipment.
“Already, importation of medical products is being regulated by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).”
However, AMSLN has challenged NMA to go to court rather than threaten the apex bank to withdraw the circular. Its president, Godswill Okara, told newsmen in Abuja that: “If NMA feels very strongly about the circular, it should go to court, contest it and see the way it will be floored.”
He warned that if the CBN should succumb to the NMA pressure and withdraw the circular, his association would challenge the withdrawal in court. Okara further advised the NMA to subject itself to the rule of law, jettison ego-tripping and embrace laudable objectives that would improve the nation’s health sector.
“The dog-in-the-manger attitude would not help the health sector, neither will the first-born mentality often displayed by the NMA and its members. Modern healthcare practice is multi-disciplinary and multi-professional in dimension and scope,” he noted.
“The old concept of the patient belonging to the doctor is now outdated and relates only to the medieval era. The quest to demand for what it wants and also turn around to dictate what others should be given is to say the least reprehensible and nihilistic. NMA does not have the exclusive preserve to strike action.
“The CBN circular, unlike the chauvinistic undertone of everything done by the NMA, is not about the MLSCN or any other professional group, but about the citizens of this country, who spend a whopping $1.7 billion annually seeking quality diagnosis and treatment abroad, and who have continued to clamour for reliable medical diagnosis.”
He added: “The laws of Nigeria specifically mandated and empowered the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria to perform this onerous duty of ensuring that fake and substandard in-vitro diagnostics are eliminated from the Nigerian healthcare sector.
“Sections 4e and 19d of the Medical Laboratory Science Council Law Act 11, 2003 (Cap M2S, LFN 2014) specifically mandates the MLSCN to “regulate the production, importation, sales and stocking of diagnostic reagents and chemicals and make rules for the maintenance of good standard of medical laboratory practice and services.
This is “with respect to regulation and control of private practice, including statutory inspection, approval and monitoring of all medical laboratories, including those adjoined to clinics, private and public health institutions.”