Public health laboratories have become key drivers in maintaining the Integrated Disease Surveillance Response (IDSR) adopted by the Ghana Health Service. Their capacity to identify, confirm and report priority pathogens to the appropriate units aids them greatly in this role.

Quality Management Systems (QMS) are an essential component in good laboratory practice and form the basis for efficient and reliable delivery of quality results from the laboratory. As part of strengthening the laboratory quality management systems, it is important that laboratory managers, quality control officers, mentors and other staff in general discuss and deepen their understanding in this area and become more competent in assessing the capabilities of their respective laboratories.

To this end, a one-week workshop was organised by the Centre for Health Systems Strengthening (CfHSS) in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Centers of Disease (CDC), to give in-depth understanding of the QMS principles and the relevant ISO standards that go hand in hand with them to better assess their output and ensure the quality we seek for.

The workshop brought together eighteen participants who were laboratory and/or quality managers from the four public health laboratories in the country as well as the four mentors placed in three of these facilities by the CfHSS. The Regional Director for Health Services in the Ashanti region, Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang and Dr. Kwasi Yeboah-Awudzie, the Deputy Director for Public Health graced the workshop with their presence.

Participants who attended the workshop

From left to right: the two mentors at the KPHL (George Gariba and Priscilla Obeng-Boadi) going over some shared documents and Mentor at SPHL Grace Womechigah with the Quality Manager there Eric Ofosu

Mr. Richard Kutame from the NPHRL leading discussions on what had been learnt from previous sessions.