The African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) is excited to share the news that a total of 103 South African National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) facilities have achieved ISO 15189:2021 accreditation through the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS). It took more than 20 years to reach the 100th milestone, as seen in Figure 1. The first NHLS facility to be accredited was the National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD) in 2000. Since then, over 100 additional laboratories (63% since 2018) have achieved the international standard that will help them deliver quality results and improved health outcomes.
Figure 1: The journey to accreditation started in 2000
More laboratories still need to be accredited, as seen in Figure 2, showing the number of both accredited and non-accredited facilities per province, but South Africa’s NHLS is on the right path towards 100% accreditation.
Figure 2: Accredited and non-accredited NHLS laboratories
The NHLS credits much of this success to the hard work done by past and present laboratory staff, laboratory managers, internal auditors, quality assurance (QA) coordinators, business managers, QA managers and area managers. Not only were the laboratories able to attain accreditation – many during the pandemic – but not a single NHLS laboratory lost its accreditation during this period. ASLM congratulates South Africa’s NHLS for this hard work and dedication to international accreditation.
The need for concerted efforts to ensure quality laboratory results still remains, if patients are to receive appropriate and timely clinical management. Complying with international standards makes us part of a global laboratory community that is better prepared to prevent and fight outbreaks. ASLM encourages all laboratories to work towards achieving ISO 15189 accreditation and to share their success stories with ASLM.
Authors: Patience Dabula and David Lewin
Editor: Mrs Bethanie Rammer
About ASLM
Established in 2011, the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) is a pan-African professional body focused on improving healthcare by strengthening all aspects of laboratories including workforce strengthening, quality improvement and accreditation, regulation(s) harmonization, networks strengthening, and advocacy and communication strengthening. Laboratory testing is pivotal for disease diagnosis, epidemiological surveillance, outbreak investigation, and treatment initiation and monitoring, as well as research and development. ASLM addresses these challenges by working collaboratively with governments; national, regional and international organizations; implementing partners; the private sector; and other agencies to achieve its strategic vision goals. ASLM is endorsed by the African Union with support from the World Health Organization, Africa CDC, the US CDC, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the World Bank, the Clinton Foundation, UNAIDS, and others.