In the opinion of the National Council of Laboratory Diagnosticians, the draft regulation of the Minister of Health on the requirements to be met by a medical diagnostic laboratory and the qualifications of personnel, submitted for an opinion, not only fails to meet the expectations of the laboratory diagnostic community, but also does not match the current challenges of the operation of medical diagnostic laboratories, reports Monika Pintal-Slimak, President of the National Council of Laboratory Diagnosticians.
M. Pintal-Slug: draft regulation on requirements of diagnostic laboratories is not in line with current challenges
Published Nov. 2, 2023 08:09
In its July position paper, the National Council of Laboratory Diagnosticians noted not only the need for possible corrections to the text of the draft, but also proposed expanding the text of the draft and including additional provisions necessary for the proper and adequate functioning of medical diagnostic laboratories to meet current challenges.
In the reported amendments, KRDL pointed out that "in every hospital, the laboratory should be located where the services performed by the hospital (most of these services) are provided." In the opinion of the laboratory diagnosticians' self-government, this is important due to the organization of the diagnostic and treatment process, the efficiency of patient service and the need to optimize the time of delivery of test material to the laboratory. This proposal was not taken into account by the Minister of Health.
Monika Pintal-Slimak, president of the National Council of Laboratory Diagnosticians, points out that the diagnosticians' self-government, following the formulated recommendation to grant laboratory diagnosticians the right to carry out vaccination qualifications and perform vaccinations, also proposed making relevant amendments to the regulation under review regarding the requirements for performing these services in the laboratory. "Analogous to the group of pharmacists, laboratory diagnosticians could gain the right to perform vaccinations," the president of the National Council of Laboratory Diagnosticians points out. Monika Pintal-Slimak stresses that "more than 1,500 diagnosticians have trained to perform immunizations on COVID-19, and resources in the form of laboratories and the competence of diagnosticians should be used effectively by the healthcare system for the benefit of patients." However, this proposal was not taken up by the Health Minister.
Among the comments of the laboratory diagnosticians' self-government that were not included in the draft regulation was a proposal to delete the requirements for the IT system with which a laboratory must be equipped. In the Council's view, these requirements must take into account the actual capabilities of systems that also serve smaller laboratories.
The National Council of Laboratory Diagnosticians said it will renew its comments on the draft regulation as part of the ongoing consultation process, requesting positive consideration.
Source: Press Release
