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Most Dubai medical labs fail proficiency tests

Many among the over 190 medical labs in the emirate have failed to secure accreditation over two years after they crossed the deadline to do so.

Dubai — Majority of medical labs in Dubai have repeatedly failed in proficiency tests for accreditation, prompting assessors to call for their closure in case of failure in the third attempt.

Many among the over 190 medical labs in the emirate have failed to secure accreditation over two years after they crossed the deadline to do so, officials said on the sidelines of the 3rd GCC Laboratory Proficiency Conference held in Dubai.

Assessors are now recommending closure of labs that fail to fulfil accreditation requirements by the third inspection visit, they told Khaleej Times.

In 2010, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) made it legally mandatory for all medical laboratories, whether independent or attached to any healthcare establishment in private or public sector, to secure ISO 15189 accreditation.

Later on, the deadline to seek accreditation was set at December 31, 2012, said officials at the Dubai Accreditation Centre (DAC), one of the lead accreditation bodies approved by the DHA.

“Of the total 191 labs as per DHA figures, the DAC is dealing with 139. We have accredited 66 labs and are in the process of accrediting 73 more,” said Prabhakar Golkonda, principal accreditation officer at the DAC.

A department under the Dubai Municipality, the DAC is the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC)-approved local accreditation body.

Director of the DAC, Amina Ahmed Mohammed, said the DAC hopes to take the number of accredited medical labs in Dubai to 100 by the end of the year.

However, the problem being faced by officials is that most of the labs, new and old, have been repeatedly failing in their proficiency tests.

“We are in a situation now where we are facing this big question — for how long are we going to keep visiting them for inspections when they keep failing,” said Golkonda, who is also the lead assessor with the DAC.

He said the DAC is communicating with the DHA to restrict the number of lab inspection visits to three.

“If a lab does not succeed in the third visit, there are serious problems in the lab which directly affect the quality of patient care and which should stop it from working. You can’t let a lab continue to work with major non-compliances,” he noted.

The DHA will be requested to force labs failing in the third attempt to stop tests and send samples to accredited labs until they set their standards in place.

“If they don’t get into the platform … they will have to close it down,” he said.

Other emirates

Farah Ali Al Zarooni, director of Accreditation Department at the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (Esma ), said it is working with other emirates to implement similar standards in labs located there.

“We want to introduce the lab accreditation in other emirates also. We are now working with authorities in Abu Dhabi to encourage them to have a proficiency testing programme, which is a main requirement for accreditation.”

Acting Director-General of Esma, Abdulla Abdulqaer Al Maeeni said the Emirates National Accreditation Scheme requires laboratories to register with Esma. “We want to promote the adoption of international standards and globalise our results so that private and public lab tests from here are recognised internationally,” he said.

Vice-Chair of ILAC Merih Malmqvist Nilsson said ISO 15189 accreditation allows medical labs to demonstrate, through a rigorous process, the technical competence to all stakeholders including healthcare providers, authorities and patients.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com