The Ministry of Health Zanzibar has said that the existence of a Laboratory policy in the country will help strengthen Health services.
Opening the meeting to review the Draft Policy and Laboratory guidelines for the leaders of the Ministry of Health, Heads of units and various stakeholders, the Director General of the Ministry of Health Zanzibar, Dr. Amour Suleiman Mohamed said that having such a policy will enable implementation at different levels of delivery of service.
He said that the policy is the main guide for the provision of services in various areas, including the laboratory in hospitals and health centers in Zanzibar, there were no guideline for the provision of these services, so the existence of the policy will greatly improve the quality of the services.
He has informed that due to the absence of a laboratory policy for a long period of time, each of the laboratory staff was doing their work according to what they think is correct according to their education and profession, so after having this guide which is expected to be adopted by the Government through the Ministry of Health will help them work more efficiently.
He said that immediately after the adoption of the policy, every Laboratory Specialist should make sure that he is doing his work in accordance with the policy and guide and asked the experts to make sure that the guide touches every area of laboratory testing.
For his part, the Project Manager from ICAP Dr. Haji Hussein has said that in achieving the Policy, they have collaborated with the Ministry of Health to check the priorities of the policy so that it can be implemented at the Laboratory level.
He said that currently they have already developed three guidelines, two for mainland Tanzania and one for Zanzibar, which will involve providing training to laboratory workers as well as supporting laboratory workers to detect every disease through their laboratory.
On his part, the Manager of non-prioritized NTD diseases, Dr. Shaali Ame, has said that they expect the Policy and Guidelines to consider all issues in all laboratories in the country.
The meeting to adopt policies and guidelines for continents is held in collaboration with the Ministry of Health Zanzibar, ICAP and CDC Tanzania.
