Medical Laboratory Council discontinues manual registration of facilities

TMedical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria ( MLSCN) has phased out manual registration of medical laboratory facilities in the country.

Consequently, practitioners and proprietors would no longer be required to submit piles of documents to the headquarters in Abuja or seek to open paper files that end up slowing down the process.

MLSCN Registrar, Dr Tosan Erhabor, who disclosed this in Abuja, said the decision was part of the efforts to reposition the regulatory agency, and to align with the charge of President Bola Tinubu for government agencies to become more innovative, as well as overcome existing challenges.

“Under the prevailing conditions, it would not help us to continue to do the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different outcome. As a regulatory agency, we owe it to our clients to scale up efficiency, effectiveness, speed of service delivery, as well as transparency,” he said.

According to him, allowing technology to drive the registration of laboratories would help the council collect the relevant data in decision- making, while the clients would experience better service delivery. "It’s a win- win situation for all and the innovation would also help MLSCN boost its revenue in the long run,” he said.

The registrar, who allayed the fears of stakeholders on the complexity of the technology- driven process, assured that the management had gone to great lengths to simplify the process to the level that anyone with basic computer literacy can perform the task seamlessly even on their smartphones.

He urged the stakeholders to continue to support the council to deliver on its mandate, adding that the time had come to transform every aspect of the health sector to discourage health tourism and save the over $ 2 billion spent by citizens seeking quality diagnosis abroad. The President, Guild of Medical Laboratory Directors ( GMLD), Dr Elochukwu Adibo, described the move as a welcome development, stressing that it can improve the process of medical laboratory registration, as well as the existing relationship between MLSCN and stakeholders.