Lab Scientists Warn Against Use Of Biologists, Technologists To Generate Medical Results

THE Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has warned employers of labour to desist from the continuous use of persons with background in the field of biological science and Science Laboratory Technology (SLT) to generate medical diagnostic results in clinical settings.

  In a statement made available to The Guardian yesterday by the association’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Adeyeye Adetunji-Tam, the association stated that the use of such professionals in the medical laboratory centres to generate results would endanger the health of Nigerians by encouraging “quackery.”

  Adetunji-Tam added that “ training of students of SLT and biological science in medical diagnostic laboratories for the purpose of Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWESS) and industrial attachment is an aberration,” explaining that such act amounts to illegality that should not be encouraged by any medical laboratory scientist worth his onions. 

  The statement read: “It is amazing to note that more efforts are still needed to sensitise the public and employers of labour on the danger of allowing industrial attachments for students of science laboratory technology and other biological sciences in medical diagnostic laboratories for the purpose of generating results from patients’ clinical samples and using such results for the treatment and or management of patients. It is even of serious danger and unprofessional act to train students of science laboratory technology and biological science in medical diagnostic laboratories for the purpose of SIWESS/Industrial Attachment.

  “AMLSN wishes to reiterate the position of the MLSCN that training of students of SLT and biological science in medical diagnostic laboratories for the purpose of SIWESS/industrial attachment is an aberration and will create a false sense of relevance in medical diagnostic laboratories by the students of these programmes and will encourage the thriving of quackery.”