Association Tasks Members On Patients’ Safety

The National Associa
tion of Medical Laboratory Scientists has advised professional medical laboratory scientists to imbibe measures that would ensure the safety of patients.
The Chairman of the association in Enugu state, Mr Duduyemi Olaniyi, gave the advice on Friday in Enugu during the 2016 International Biomedical Laboratory day.
The celebration tagged ‘Patients’ Safety First’, was organised by the association in collaboration with the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital (FNSH), Enugu.
He said that the event was aimed at promoting awareness of the key role played by the laboratory scientists in the diagnosis of patients and research in the modern medical sciences.
“The event is an important platform for medical laboratory scientists and other healthcare professionals to come together to network, learn from each other and explore innovative ways to deliver safer and better care for our patients.
“Our healthcare sectors have been doing poorly because of the regulatory vacuums.
“We have heard of hundreds of cases on negligence, malpractice, even death of patients and do not want to blame this on anyone but ignorance,” he said.
He urged health workers to always show their deep passion and commitment for patient’s safety and well-being.
In a keynote address, the Head of Clinical Research and Training, FNPH, Dr Bakare Muideen, said that patients safety had become a global issue that needed to be tackled.
He said that over 10 patients were being harmed, infected, wrongly injected, wrong prescription or operated-on while receiving hospital care as a result of error emanating from health professional’s carelessness.
In a lecture, the Chief Medical Laboratory Scientist of the hospital, Mr Williams Nworie, said the harm suffered by  most patients was not adequately reported to avoid blame and fear of putting the patients at a risk of litigation.
He advised the laboratory scientists to always abide by the ethics of their profession by putting the patients and the hospital they worked with, first.
“A good laboratory scientist should seek help if test conducted did not give the desired result,” he said.
He advocated for annual training of health workers as it could help to promote patient’s safety in the hospitals.
The association donated some items to the psychiatric patients.