…Urges FG for urgent intervention, resolution

By Enyeribe Ejiogu

National President of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, AMLSN, Dr Uche Odionyenma, has cried out over the continuing violation of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria Act No. 11 of 2003 by members of the Association of Science Laboratory Technologists of Nigeria (ASLTON).

Reacting to the recent incident whereby the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) carried out an enforcement action in Warri, Delta State, and sealed an unregulated facility found to be operated by unqualified personnel (quacks), Odionyenwa said it was odious and absolutely unfortunate that the local leaders of ASLTON unsealed and re-opened the facility run by one of their members in clear violation of the provisions of the MLSCN Act, which is the sole body recognized by law to regulate the practice of medical laboratory science in Nigeria.

Elaborating on this, Odionyenma said: “The Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria Act No. 11 of 2003, is the enabling law for regulating and controlling the practice of Medical Laboratory Science. Section 29 of this enabling law interpreted ‘‘medical laboratory science’’ as (a) the practice involving the analysis of human or animal tissue, body fluids, excretions, production of biologicals, design and fabrication of equipment for the purpose of medical laboratory diagnosis, treatment and research and (b) includes medical microbiology, clinical chemistry, chemical pathology, haematology, blood transfusion science, virology, histopathology, histochemistry, immunology, cytogenetic, exfoliative cytology, parasitology, forensic science, molecular biology, laboratory management; or any other related subject as may be approved by the Council.

“Section 22;2 of the Act further stipulates that ‘A person who is not a member of the profession shall not practice the profession or, in expectation of reward, take or use any name, title, addition or description implying that he is in practice as a member of the profession …’’ Section 18 of the MLSCN Act states ‘‘(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, a person shall be deemed to be actively engaged as a member of the Council if, in consideration of remuneration received or to be received, and whether by himself or in partnership with any other person: (a) he holds himself out to the public as a scientist under the Act; or (b) he offers to perform or performs any service involving knowledge of medical laboratory sciences; or  (c) he renders professional service or assistance in or about matters of principle or details relating to medical laboratory science procedure or the processing of data; or (d) he renders any other service which may by regulations made by the Board, be designated as service constituting practice as a medical laboratory scientist under this act.

“(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, no person not being a fully registered medical laboratory scientist under this Act shall be entitled to hold any appointment in the public Service of the Federation or State or any public or private establishment, body or institution, if the holding of such appointment involves the performance by him in Nigeria of any act pertaining to the profession of medical laboratory science for gain.

“In the light of the above, the Warri facility operated clearly in violation of the MLSCN Act and deserved to be sealed and the quack practitioners prosecuted and possibly jailed to serve as deterrent to others.”

“Science Laboratory Technologists as a Professional body was basically established to manage and maintain institutional and industrial laboratories given the formal inauguration in 1972 of the Nigeria Institute of Science Technology (NIST) at Ibadan. It later transformed to the Nigeria Institute of Science Laboratory Technology following the passage and gazetting of its enabling law – Act No 12 of 2003 by the National Assembly and placed under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology now Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation with its core mandate to advance Science Laboratory Technology profession in Nigeria.

“It is through the mandate of the Institute that science laboratories are managed in secondary schools, colleges of education, polytechnics, universities, research institutes and industries to ensure international best practices.”

He said MLSCN is supervised by the Federal Ministry of Health, noting that the Nigeria Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT), is supervised by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and it is only empowered by the law that established it to regulate science laboratories in educational institutions, industries.

Stressing that science laboratory technologists should remain practitioners in nonmedical laboratories while medical laboratory scientists should hold sway in medical laboratories, and given that the two professional groups are supervised by two different and unrelated ministries, Odionyenma drew the attention of the Secretary to the grave anomaly by the Nigeria Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT) and appealed to him to use his good offices to call the Management of NISLT to order through their supervisory ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

“NISLT should be guided by their enabling law where the word ‘medical’ never appeared. Globally there is no enabling law for Science Laboratory Technologists (SLT) save for Nigeria. SLT function in healthcare delivery, if any, is merely technical outside the purview of Human Resources for Health which explains why it is not placed under the auspices of the Ministry of Health. To allow Science Laboratory Technologists to now perform the duties of Medical Laboratory Scientists in violation of the MLSCN Act is to send many Nigerians to early graves as medical laboratory diagnosis remains the key to the cure.

Maintaining and insisting on this clear demarcation by the Federal Government is imperative, moreso now that

The training of Science Laboratory Technologists empowers them to work at laboratories of Educational Institutions and Industries but certainly not a Medical Laboratory in any Health Institution whether private or public including stand alone Medical Laboratories, which are the exclusive preserve of Medical Laboratory Scientists, to do the work of a Medical Laboratory Scientist.

He warned that science laboratory technologists setting up and operating medical science laboratories portends great danger for the health sector in particular and Nigerians in general, stressing that this would “elevate quackery to a new height when professionals who should know better are now driven by monetary gains to go beyond their statutory mandate and perform duties belonging to other professionals,” adding: “The fact remains that Science Laboratory Technologists cannot successfully perform the duties of Medical Laboratory Scientists given the huge gap in their training curricula. This explains why many graduates of SLT underwent graduate internship programmes in the past and took direct entry admission to study medical laboratory science to become certified Medical Laboratory Scientists.”

According to WHO, the Human Resources for Health (HRH) framework covers professionals directly engaged in healthcare delivery such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and medical laboratory scientists. Globally SLT does not provide direct healthcare services and thus not considered part of HRH. It is instead treated as a science and industry workforce.

By contrast, he said, Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) is universally regulated as part of HRH under health laws and councils. Medical laboratory scientists deliver clinical laboratory services and remain under health regulation to protect patient safety and ensure quality standards.

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