GAMLS demands financial clearance to recruit over 2,000 qualified, licensed medical laboratory practitioners

The Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) has called on goverment to immediately grant financial clearance for the recruitment of over 2,000 qualified and licensed Medical Laboratory Science graduates in the country.

The association, at its just ended 2019 Annual National Congress and 2nd
Health Summit, deliberated on issues including the high spate of
unemployment for qualified and licensed Medical Laboratory Science
graduates in the country for several consistent years, a situation GAMLS says is
promoting quackery.

This is in spite of high workload and staff deficit in public health facilities.

Other matters that came up for consideration include; the negative
consequences of existing low tariffs and bundled laboratory charges by the
National Health Insurance Authority, which threatens the survival of medical
laboratories in the country and the need to have charges for laboratory and
OPD services separated.

In a statement signed by President of the Ghana Association of Medical
Laboratory Scientists, Dr. Ignatius A. N. Awinibuno, the association
stated that Government should as a matter of priority grant financial clearance for the recruitment of the over two thousand qualified and licensed medical
laboratory practitioners.

“The Government of Ghana must ensure that all the necessary
requirement for the implementation of the public-private-partnership (PPP) to
strengthen diagnostic laboratory services in the country is not compromised,” the statement said.

The group also called on Government, through the Ministry of Health, to
ensure that laboratory facilities and services are available in all public and
private health institutions to support quality health care delivery.