Workshop aims to improve lab services

A TWO-DAY diagnostic network optimisation workshop started in Port Moresby yesterday with the aim of improving laboratory services in the country.
The workshop saw representatives from seven provincial health authorities and was facilitated by the Central Public Health Laboratories (CPHL) and Fhi360.
Fhi360 chief of party and country representative Dr Poruan Temo said: “The purpose of this is, it can give the country the information that they can use to design how the lab systems will be set up and work, and can actually deliver services to the people of PNG,”
He said the programme was funded by USAID and that was to get a better understanding of the entire laboratory infrastructure of the country.
“It also looks at facilities and the burden of testing that’s happening within the facility,” he said.
“And how those samples are moving across the country to reach labs where they can be tested so that the results can get back on time for patients to be treated accurately.
“The idea is to go out the field in different provinces and collect all the information about where the testing would be needed, especially for tuberculosis, HIV and Covid-19.
“Where the testing is happening, how the samples are being tested, where they are moving to and map all of that.”