The Ministry of Health last Friday hosted a workshop to deliberate on the draft National Strategic Plan for Laboratories which is aimed at regulating the levels of service offered by public health laboratories within the public and private sectors.

According to a Ministry of Health release, the workshop was aimed at setting guidelines to regulate the services offered at the five levels of health care services in the country – health posts, health centres, district hospitals, regional hospitals, and tertiary hospitals.

Guyana is approaching a new era of health care delivery and all public health facilities must have guidelines, the release quoted Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy as telling the audience as he declared the workshop open at Hotel Tower. In this context the government has introduced the Health Facilities Licensing Bill which was sent to a Special Select Committee before its second reading at the January 11 sitting of the National Assembly.

The bill is intended to strengthen regulation of public and private hospitals, laboratories, dialysis centres, imaging centres (MRI and CT scans), surgical clinics and cancer treatment centres that provide radiotherapy.

However, the release noted, if private doctors seek to conduct major surgeries or offer laboratory services under this anticipated Act, they would have to obtain a licence to do so.

While several categories of health care professionals and services are already regulated, including doctors, nurses and dentists, others remain unregulated, the release stated.

And according to Minister Ramsammy, before the end of the first half of 2007, a bill would be introduced to regulate practices of those health care professionals. The bill is being finalised and would see a Health Professionals Council being established, the release added.

Also delivering remarks at the seminar were Director of Clinical Laboratories Yvette Irving and Director of Standards and Technical Services, Dr Dennison Davis.