Post COVID-19: Advancing medical laboratory service integration in nigeria and progress towards establishing integration guideline

Background

The Nigerian healthcare system, including medical laboratories, operates in a three-tiered structure across public and private sectors. Lessons from COVID-19 show the urgent need for a guideline to drive medical laboratory service integration.

Problem

Lack of operational guideline to drive the integration of laboratory services has resulted in siloed operations across different medical laboratories causing duplication of resources, coordination issues, and inefficiencies.

Aim

To highlight the development processes of medical laboratory service integration guideline and discuss its key provisions.

Method

The Medical Laboratory Services Division (MLSD), Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) initiated the development of a national guideline for integrating medical laboratory services. Partnering with stakeholders and engaging two consultants, a technical workshop was facilitated in January 2024. The Consultants garnered the initial inputs stakeholders made at the five-day meeting. The inputs were collated and organized to produce the guideline. The guideline was circulated to participants and other stakeholders for review and feedback received was used to finalize the document. The MLSD with support from partners further held a three-day stakeholders’ meeting in May 2024 to validate the document before submitting it to the Health Minister for endorsement.

Result

The guideline sets standards for achieving medical laboratory services and systems integration across different medical laboratories. The contents of the guideline are enumerated and respective recommendations made under each element are highlighted.

Conclusion

The implementation of the guideline will help harmonize services, improve access to diagnostics, streamline processes, reduce redundancies, optimize resource utilization, enhance communication, data sharing, and pandemic preparedness.