The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria has urged President Bola Tinubu to direct the Attorney-General of the Federation and relevant health-sector stakeholders to implement a recent Court of Appeal judgment on managing medical laboratory services in federal tertiary hospitals.
The association said the judgment, delivered by the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, settled the long-standing dispute over the management and control of medical laboratory services involving the management of Jos University Teaching Hospital, pathologists and the Incorporated Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria.
The association’s National President, Casmir Ifeanyi, who appealed to the just-concluded 61st Annual Scientific Conference and General Meeting in Minna, described it as a resolution of the prolonged dispute over who should control medical laboratory services.
He said the ruling reaffirmed the legal distinction between medical laboratory science and medicine, noting that the profession had its own enabling Act, regulatory council, scheme of service and scope of practice.
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Ifeanyi further insisted that pathologists and the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria must comply with the judgment and restrict their practice to their statutory responsibilities, rather than perform medical laboratory tests.
On the issue of quackery among the professionals, Ifeanyi said the association is not resting until the trend is reversed.
Ifeanyi further called on the Federal Government to reconstitute the governing and regulatory boards of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, which he said had remained delayed for too long.
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(Editor: Anoyoyo Ogiagboviogie)
