• Home

All clinical labs told to obtain international accreditation

DUBAI — The Dubai Health Authority has asked all clinical laboratories, including labs in clinics and polyclinics, to obtain international accreditation by December.

The accreditation is a measure of quality, reliability and safety check on the healthcare services provided by the labs. In 2007, laboratories in the emirate were asked to obtain the accreditation; however, not all completed the process.

According to the new requirement, all laboratories will require the quality check from five international bodies approved by the authority before December 30, 2011.

“Most of the independent laboratories operating in Dubai are already accreditated,” explained Buthaina Al Hariri, Lab-In-Charge at the Dubai-based Al Abbar Laboratories for Research and Medical Analysis that run a group of eight labs.

“However, this time, all laboratories within clinics and polyclinics have been asked to obtain the accreditation,” she said. As per an estimate, Dubai has over 15 single standing labs while several more are attached to hospitals and clinics. Each accreditation process can take up to seven months depending on the medical specialities covered by the laboratories. The costs to obtain the accreditation could run into thousands of dirhams.

“The criteria and requirement for accreditation for a small laboratory is the same as the one for a single standing one, but since they have fewer tests and smaller labs, they can obtain the certification within three months,” said Buthaina.

Recently, the health authority and Dubai Municipality signed an MoU to make Dubai Accreditation Centre (DAC) the first local accreditation body for laboratories in the UAE and the fourth in the Middle East. The authority said that the presence of a local accreditation body would be cost effective with a lesser turn around time.

The DHA accepts the accreditation of the following international bodies: International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) done by DAC, The College of American Pathologists (CAP), Clinical Pathology Accreditation (CPA), Joint Commission Accreditation (JCI) and Accreditation Canada.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com