Sir Muhammad Sanusi General Hospital in Kano city has been chosen as one of the six facilities in Nigeria to be accredited as the best international laboratory service centres.
The head of Kano Institute of Human Virology of Nigeria, Dr Bashir Zubairu made this known when he led a team from Global Fund and Fhi360 on an advocacy visit to Kano State Agency for the Control of AIDS (KSACA).
Dr Zubairu said the hospital laboratory was well equipped with modern facilities for the programme, adding that when accredited, Sir Sanusi Hospital would not only engage in HIV testing but on all kinds of diseases.
He explained that the hospital would become a centre of excellence for such services, if it scaled through the accreditation requirements.
The Senior Technical Officer (STO) of the programme Ugochi Ezenwelu said that the visit was for sensitization towards laboratory Quality Management System ( QMS) implementation and accreditation.
Ezenwelu added that laboratory custodians were expected to ensure results from their centres to be accurate, stressing that all staffs of the hospital would be sensitized and trained in order to achieve the set goals.
He also noted that for the programme to succeed , manpower was needed at such laboratories as well as adequate commitment from staffs and upgrade of the facility by the government.
The KSACA Director General, Dr Usman Bashir assured the visitors that Kano state government would support them on the project.
He further said that the state’s Infectious Diseases Hospital ( IDH) had recently scaled through similar accreditation with the state government support.
Dr Bashir expressed hope that Sir Sanusi Hospital would receive similar support for accreditation to be one of the globally recognized laboratories.
