Proper diagnosis key to treatment - Prof. Vitarana

Manjari PEIRIS

COLOMBO: Getting a proper diagnosis of the illness affecting the patient is the key to treatment, Science and Technology Minister Prof. Tissa Vitarana said.

“If not one may give the most expensive medicine in the world which has no effect and may even do harm,” he said.

“Prescribing various medicines for treatment is something that can be gathered from books. The difficult thing is to properly diagnose the illness so that correct treatment could be applied,” the Minister said.

Addressing personnel affiliated to laboratories at the inauguration of a five-day workshop organised by the Sri Lanka Accreditation Board (SLAB) under a project launched by the Science and Technology Ministry to develop accreditation activities and upgrade the Quality of Testing Services in Sri Lanka.

Any difference in laboratory reports can be a difference between life and death.

Not only quantitative differences, but also qualitative differences which matter can arise out of laboratories, Prof. Vitarana said.

“However, a skilled cook you are, if you don’t use good ingredients, the outcome will not be palatable. In the same way unless you provide the best possible infrastructure, the equipment, the trained and qualified personnel, you are not going to get the necessary outcome to provide the conditions for getting a correct report,” the Minister said.

The other aspect is to have a means of checking whether the outcome is correct or not, i.e. the Quality Assurance Programme which has both internal and external standards applied with which you can compare to make sure that the results which you should be getting is actually obtained.

“So we have to resort to both these. It is vitally important that this is done not just as a gesture, but continuously almost religiously, so that you can ensure your standards,” Prof. Vitarana said.

Many companies that sell equipment for laboratories entice them to buy their equipment, by lowering the price, but the laboratories get the standards and the other chemical and requirements from the companies who make their money on that, he said.

In Sri Lanka, a Bill was enacted in Parliament that requires all private medical institutions including medical laboratories to register with the Private Health Services Regulatory Council.