Accra, Oct. 19, GNA - The Belgian government has embarked on a 5.1 million-euro upgrading project to modernise laboratories and train clinical technicians in 46 hospitals.

The project, which covers supply and installation, user training, warranty and post-warranty maintenance of medical devices, is also expected to train the laboratory technicians to ensure full utilisation and operation of the devices.

Some of the medical devices include one haematology analyzer, spectrophotometer, an electrophoresis unit, a set of ancillary laboratory equipment and 16 pieces of 80KVA standby generators. Dr Nichodemus Gebe, Head of Biomedical Engineering Unit of the Ministry of Health (MOH), was speaking to journalists in Accra on Monday at a workshop held for 11 clinical technicians to upgrade their knowledge on clinical laboratory practice.

The day's workshop, which is the first of a two-week long training organised by the Biomedical Engineering Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital on behalf of the MOH for clinical technicians, is aimed at building the capacity of some 43 laboratory technicians across the country. Dr Gebe said the MOH had initiated a policy position towards the introduction of automated laboratory systems in the country to improve the efficiency of the health delivery system as well as to phase out manual and conventional clinical laboratory practices.

"The project was conceived to serve as a catalyst towards mass introduction of automated laboratory systems at all levels of healthcare delivery, particularly the primary level, where majority of the Ghanaian populace accesses health care," he said.

Dr Gebe said that an effective health care delivery system was crucial in achieving Ghana's development agenda of attaining a middle income status with a gross domestic product of at least 1,000 dollar by 2015. "The main strategic pillars for achieving this growth are vigorous pursuit of human capital investment, strengthening the role of the private sector and good governance," he said.

Dr Gebe said capital investment plans had been put in place to prioritise the provision of infrastructure and equipment that contribute to quality improvement in health care, especially at the primary level. Some of the clinical technicians, who spoke to journalists, expressed the hope that the training would build their capacity to take advantage of technological advancement in the health care industry for better patient outcomes.