The Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HEFRA) says basic laboratories across the country are to be headed by licensed medical laboratory technicians. 

This person must be in good standing with the Allied Health Professional Council.

This clarification comes in the wake of an impasse between Medical Laboratory Scientists across the country and the Ghana Medical Association over the appointment of two doctors to leadership positions at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

These were portions of a statement from the Agency to the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).

In the letter sighted by JoyNews, HeFRA further reinforced its position as the organisation clothed with the prerogative of determining Human Resource requirements and leadership at healthcare institutions including laboratories.

On the back of this, the May 31 letter enumerated that “Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Laboratories are headed by either a laboratory medicine specialist or a licensed biomedical scientist.”

According to them, “it is the leadership of the healthcare facility to appoint who should be the supervisor of the laboratory or any other unit.”

Meanwhile, the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) has already defied a court order to return to work as they protest management’s failure to withdraw two physicians posted to their directorate at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.