NDLI: Developing external quality assessment programmes for primary health: care level in resource limited countries

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Carter, J. Y. Lema, Orgenes E. Adhiambo, Christine G. Materu, Sadiki F.
Copyright Year	2002
Abstract	Laboratory services are an essential component of health care delivery in tropical countries and play a vital role in improving the accuracy of clinical diagnosis and the investigation of disease outbreaks. In developing countries, laboratories face numerous constraints to providing quality services, including poor selection of techniques, difficulties in equipment availability and maintenance, and shortages of supplies, staffing and supervision. Currently in the eastern African countries (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), internal quality control procedures are inconsistently carried out in most laboratories. National External Quality Assessment Schemes (EQAS) have been established in all countries addressing a limited number of tests, but are constrained by difficulties of sustainability and poor coverage. The Laboratory Programme of the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) has been operating a simple EQAS for primary heath care laboratories since 1993. Tests addressed are those carried out in primary health care laboratories in eastern Africa. A total of 81 laboratories from 5 countries in the eastern African region have participated in the scheme since 1993 and 9 distributions were submitted since the start of the scheme. No laboratory participated in all distributions; 24 (30%) laboratories participated in 4 or more distributions. Of these, the hospital laboratories in Kenya and Tanzania showed improved average mean scores between the first two and subsequent distributions. The educational benefit of participation in the scheme is emphasised. There was an overall low rate of participation of laboratories (35%) once the scheme was expanded to include laboratories outside direct AMREF project activities. Contributing factors include shortages of staff and lack of time in busy rural laboratories, together with difficulties in communication; however, the voluntary nature and lack of appreciation of the benefits of participation may also play a role. To increase participation in the scheme and to address the quality of laboratory services throughout the region, AMREF is currently developing a Regional EQAS in collaboration with the Ministries of Health of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, in affiliation with the World Health Organisation (WHO). The approaches used to establish reference values for haemoglobin samples are discussed. The scheme has also been utilised to examine the performance of different techniques for haemoglobin estimation, demonstrating the inaccuracy of the visual comparator methods.
Starting Page	345
Ending Page	350
Page Count	6
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09491775
Journal	Accreditation and Quality Assurance
Volume Number	7
Issue Number	8-9
e-ISSN	14320517
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2014-03-18
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Analytical Chemistry Food Science Biochemistry Commercial Law Ecotoxicology Marketing
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Chemistry Instrumentation Chemical Engineering Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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