Director General – MoH Presides over the Laboratory Sector Planning Retreat 2014
On 15th – 16th January 2014, the DGHS/MOH Dr. Aceng Jane Ruth together with CHS – NDC MOH and Commissioner Planning, MOH were in attendance with the National Laboratory Technical Committee (LTC) during the Laboratory Sector Planning retreat held at Imperial Royale hotel in Kampala. This meeting that was organized by CPHL was to set targets and priorities for 2014 of the Laboratory sector. It was also a follow up of the LTC meeting held on 18th June 2013 at MOH Board room that discussed among others; the new LTC and their TOR, the report of the outgoing LTC achievements, the plan for CPHL transition to NHLS, and the SLMTA Baseline assessment report.
In addition to setting priorities for 2014, the meeting put in place functioning sub-committees for each of the priority (thematic) areas, discussed their TOR and the DGHS/MOH Dr. Aceng Jane Ruth inaugurated members of all the sub-committees.
The Sub- committees are advisory to the National Health Laboratories Technical Committee (LTC). They monitor implementation of the National Health Laboratory Services Policy in their relevant thematic areas as well as identify areas for adjustment, and making appropriate recommendations to the LTC. The committees also review policy documents and plans in their thematic areas as part of the Ministry’s approval processes and advise the LTC accordingly.
There are 8 sub-committees including; Policy and Standards, Quality Assurance, Laboratory Service Delivery, Training and Human Resource Development, Supplies and Equipment, Bio-risk and Infrastructure management, Research and Development and Laboratory Information Management sub-committees. Each of these sub-committees was tasked to present a draft work plan that was discussed during the retreat.
The recommended changes in the work plans were to be refined during follow up meetings. The sub-committees were expected to submit final work plans to LTC within two weeks. They are also expected to report on the progress of their specific objectives in the plans during the retreat of 2015.
For example, the Policy and Standards sub-committee is to report on the NHL charter and roadmap for the transition of CPHL into the NHLS; plan for the end of term evaluation of the NHLSSP; development of a work plan for the LTC; review process of the draft guideline for registration of laboratories with AHPC; and compilation of the recently developed standards on equipment, infrastructure, testing menus, supplies etc into the National Laboratory Standards.
The retreat also established a task force to coordinate the fast tracking of the transformation of CPHL into a semi-autonomous National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) and discussed over 11 TOR for the task force including the mode of conducting business.
