Individuals, families, and society together make the country. Every citizen has an important role and responsibility in the prosperity and development of the country. Therefore, in developed countries, everyone seems to understand their importance.

There are many instances where the country is lagging behind due to general public health, whether it is due to AIDS, maternal and child health, malnutrition or other lifestyle related health issues.

Of course, in developed countries, parks and public places are provided with free exercise equipment by the government and “health first policy” to assure citizenry for their well-being.  But there is no doubt that our country will have to wait for decades for such health assurance and get “cash deposit first policy” replaced by “health first policy” in our healthcare system.

The life of Nepalese is becoming difficult due to decades of political strife and the dire situation created by it. In this situation, even the fundamental rights of ordinary citizens are being ruined. Even the right to life has been rejected in many instances. In such a situation, a simple good meal has become a luxury for the majority of ordinary people.

Due to the ongoing political instability, it seems that the health condition of us in general will continue to be at risk. Therefore, it is very important for us to be vigilant. The private sectors need to be proactive as it is a low hanging opportunity for investment in the healthcare industry.

Non-communicable diseases are not only caused by a lack of balanced diet, but also excessive consumption of alcohol & different forms of tobacco, and a lack of information about one's health. On the other-hand, lack of personal hygiene, unhealthy food, and contaminated drinking water/air are the major causes of various infections.

There are remarkably positive changes in the establishment of clinical laboratories that help diagnose diseases. The state and its machinery should be primarily responsible for guiding the private sector in providing quality services rather than providing licenses to mushrooming inferior quality businesses.

We have seen exhaustive examples of the general public having to bear the brunt of the loss out of the inferior quality performance of healthcare business, which is otherwise expected to be more honest and innovative.

There is a stark difference between knowing and not knowing. Knowing about self-health conditions can make us more cautious than in the state of unawareness. Awareness of our health is the first essential condition for a healthy life. Similarly, acquiring the knowledge on subject matter, latest technology and traceable techniques in place are the prerequisite for venturing laboratory business.

Special methods to bring quality results in this genre of science are published as certified documents. Similarly, important quality components are clearly being used in specialized laboratories. It is a heinous crime to squander the hard-earned money and health of the helpless citizens in mutual harmony- a historic sad part witnessed during COVID-19 pandemic management.

 

Condition of Laboratories in Nepal: -

1) Numerous laboratories are not under the supervision of qualified personnel.

2) The respected names of the field have been tarnished by the ill-practices of others.

3) People have been hit hard by the unfair and uncontrolled overpriced services even for inferior services with poor service quality.

4) It is going through a dilapidated condition due to unrealistic profit-oriented attitude, and an untraceable quality assurance system in place.

 

How to rise above it?

Many self-reliant experts in this field have not stopped trying to rise above this situation. We can see some good laboratories have been set up in each of our cities. It is necessary to find an answer to a difficult but awkward question of how to identify a good lab. This requires a careful study of the following aspects:

At a glance observation:

  1. Do these labs open and close on time?
  2. Are these labs practicing raising public awareness about health?
  3. Do these labs give test results in a timely manner?
  4. Are the latest technologies being used with sufficient investment in the lab?
  5. Do they have cleanliness, practical knowledge, skill and sophisticated behavior?

Technical Observations:

  1. Do the labs have reliable documentation of device calibration?
  2. Do the labs have incessant cooling equipment running day and night? Is there an alternative or proper arrangement in case of power shortage?
  3. Are the working lab professionals certified and trained for what they are doing there?
  4. Are there any provisions for review of various stages of samples to be analyzed?
  5. Do laboratories use quality certified kits and chemicals?
  6. Is the equipment maintenance log book up to date in their lab?
  7. Do they have provision for EQA (External Quality Assessment) to see if their results are going well?

 

The future of the laboratory

There are possibilities to make a big leap in laboratory services in Nepal. There are only a limited number of tests available in Nepal, while hundreds of times more types of tests are being conducted in India.

While all these tests, which are said to be impossible in Nepal, are going to India in various formal and informal ways, the country has to bear huge losses. It has also created a major crisis in capacity building of trained lab professionals. In order to manage it practically, it seems necessary to make continuous efforts to upgrade it by emphasizing the following: -

  1. Continue to discuss the test menu gap between physicians and laboratory experts.
  2. Introducing better technology while maintaining the quality of the existing tests and gradually increasing the types of tests. For this, it is necessary to develop a model of sustainable development.
  3. Knowledge management should be based on sharing knowledge of healthcare, increasing capacity building opportunities.

Finally, it is important to encourage all entrepreneurs, technicians and health workers related to this sector to move forward maintaining the success achieved so far. If the laboratory is strong, quality embedded, accessible and scientific, not only the service recipients and public health workers will benefit, but it will help to make the whole country healthy and move forward at the pace of development. It also reaffirms our old adage, "Health is wealth."