Various health workers in the public and private sector have concluded a special consultation aimed at developing a national laboratory policy for Anguilla.
The consultation, several days ago, was funded under the EU Project entitled: Strengthening the Integration of the British and Dutch Overseas Territories and the Regional Response to HIV/AIDS within the PANCAP Framework.
The event was conducted by Ms Valerie Wilson, Director of Caribbean Med Labs, and a consultant with the Pan American Health Organisation, based in Trinidad. She is a leader in strengthening and quality management of laboratory services in the Caribbean region. She has worked in Anguilla for over ten years as a consultant in the area of quality assurance management. Her work is now aimed at developing a laboratory policy for the island.
“As it is now, we do not have a national policy for labs so that means anybody can open a lab in Anguilla and there isn’t anything in place to ensure that there is quality service,” Mrs Maeza Demis Adams, Coordinator of the National AIDS Programme, said. The senior health official was at the time speaking to The Anguillian and was a participant in the consultation.
She continued: “Anybody can run a test, but it is how you run the test that determines the quality of the data. It is important to note that 80 percent of all decisions made by clinicians are dependent upon lab results. For example, in order to determine whether you are diabetic, you have to go to a lab and run a test. To see that your medicines are working well, you have to go to a lab and check your therapeutic levels etc – so laboratory services are extremely important in any health system. We must ensure that what we offer is really at the optimum level.”
Asked about the relationship between her duties and lab services, Mrs Demis-Adams replied: “The National AIDS Programme benefits from funds under the EU Project. It is the aim of the Ministry to utilise the funds to strength the health system on a whole – not specifically HIV. When we strengthen the health system, we strengthen HIV – and everything.”
She noted that the EU Project was now coming to an end and that full advantage was being taken to effectively use the remaining funds. “At this time, four months into the closure of the project, we are utilising funds to strengthen the overall health services, bearing in mind that, in a small island like Anguilla, when we do so, we are benefitting all areas of health,” she explained. “I think, that going forward in our strategies and plans, we need to look at the overall health system and not specific diseases or areas. That is why we have a cross-section of persons from the Health Authority, relevant Government health agencies and others at this consultation.”
