The Federal Government yesterday inducted 338 foreign-trained graduates of medical laboratory science, including one graduate from the University of Calabar who missed her induction previously. Therefore, 339 graduates were inducted to boost the health sector’s manpower.
While this new addition of medical laboratory scientists will go a long way to cushion the effect of brain drain in the health sector, about two-thirds of the graduates were trained at the Maryam Abacha American University located in the Niger Republic.
During the 7th induction ceremony at the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) in Abuja, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Council, Dr Tosan Erhabor, said: “As the attrition is taking place, we are refilling to meet up the number of medical laboratory scientists to carry out quality medical laboratory services in our dear country. It is the first of its kind to have 339 inducted into the profession.
“When we started, we observed some gaps. But today we have a 12 months training period (a one-year internship) before we can put them to Nigerians as medical laboratory scientists. This 12-month training initiative has led to a huge success rate, as at least 86 per cent of them passed their examination. This is the highest we have gotten.
“The issue of the wrong diagnosis is paramount to this Council because we believe in standards. Therefore, we have different regulatory functions such as the inspection of laboratories nationwide. In doing this, quacks are removed, and those that are not laboratory scientists are also taken out. As I speak, we have about four or five people who are quacks giving the wrong diagnosis to Nigerians in court with MLSCN. The only way we can stop the wrong diagnosis is for us to imbibe accreditation of their medical laboratory services.”
The President and Founder of Maryam Abacha American University, Prof. Adamu Gwarzo, urged the Council to introduce a second language into the curriculum, as this will not only make the graduates polyglots but also make them internationally relevant.