Specimen Transportation and Referral Linkage National Review Meeting was Held
The Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s (EPHI) National Laboratory Capacity Building Directorate (NLCBD) in collaboration with Challenge TB organized a National Review Meeting on Specimen Transportation and Referral Linkage in Adama from December 21-22, 2018.
To evaluate the system implementation status, identify the strengths and weakness of the system, know the status of different Regions on the implementation of the system and to take short and long term actions were the objectives of the meeting.
On the meeting Addisu Kebede A/Director of NLCBD indicated that many activities have been accomplished on the integrated specimen transportation and referral linkage service which are jointly done with the Ethiopian Postal Service.
“Though the service is successful, there are challenges. Therefore this meeting is called to discuss with the concerned stakeholders to identify solutions for the challenges and put the way forward. And since specimen transportation and referral linkage service is new for Ethiopia, currently capacity building trainings and also there are other ongoing activities to avoid these challenges,” said Addisu.
Bezabih Asfaw, Head of Ethiopian Postal Service’s Zonal Office presented what his office is doing with EPHI on specimen transportation and referral linkage as per the agreement previously entered with EPHI.
Integrated Specimen Transportation and Referral Linkage Practice in SNNPR, Integrated Specimen Transportation and Referral Linkage Practice in Somali and Oromia Regions, National EQA Practices and its Future Strategy and Electronical Result Delivery Utilization and its Challenges were some of the presentations that were presented on the meeting.
About 60 participants participated on the meeting who were drawn from Regional Health Bureaus, Federal Hospitals, Regional Laboratory Institutes, Center for Disease Control-Ethiopia, CHAI, Challenge TB and I-CAP.