The Pathology Laboratory at the National Referral Hospital has been certified by the World Health Organisation on Wednesday 16 February.
Health and Medical Services Minister Dr. Culwick Togamana announced this milestone achievement in his covid-19 update yesterday.
This certification was done externally by the World Health Organization through the Department of Health in Hong Kong following an External Quality Assessment Programme [EQAP] for countries of the Western Pacific Region.
The certification will now boost the NRH capability for Influenza testing and SARS-CoV-2 testing. The Ministry had registered to participate in this programme in 2021.
“Our Pathology Laboratory Services at the National Referral Hospital has been awarded with Certification of Completion with attainment of full score,” Minister Togamana said.
During the assessment process, a set of samples were sent to the NRH for testing and results sent back to the organizer which is a Reference Lab.
“The organizer compares our results with theirs, and having satisfied with our results, offered us this certificate of participation. This is a system to objectively check a laboratory’s performance by an external agency or facility,” Togamana said.
This latest improvement now advances our performance to match other countries of the Western Pacific region.
“Additionally, local samples sent to the Virus Identification Lab in Melbourne for retesting agreed with our results, hence we are confident that the results we are providing are reliable,” Togamana added.
-GCU Press