A two-week training of trainers’ workshop to improve the quality of laboratories in health facilities opened in Accra on Monday with a call on laboratory technicians to help meet standards.

The intensive workshop, organsied by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) through the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) for the Ghana Health Service, would be on Strengthening Laboratory Management Towards Accreditation (SLMTA).

SLMTA programme is a major component of the quality improvement initiative through laboratory accreditation preparedness as Ghana strives to meet international accreditation with its laboratories, as well as learning what criteria and standards are involved.

Dr Nii Akwei Addo, Principal Investigator of the programme, opened the workshop for 24 laboratory technicians from Ghana, Malawi, Swaziland, Uganda, Kenya and the USA in Accra.

He said 15 laboratories in Ghana had been enrolled onto the SLMTA since its inception in 2010 to build capacity at the two top tiers of the national laboratory system.

Dr Akwei Addo, the Programme Manager for the Ghana AIDS Control Programme, said quality care was one of the paramount areas in improving special laboratory services and commended CDC through PEPFAR for the capacity building support that would help improve laboratory testing and quality.

Dr Philip Bricks, Resident Adviser of the President’s Malaria Initiative, Ghana under PEPFAR, said regular workshops were necessary for laboratory technicians to equip them with the necessary skills on how to improve their service delivery.

He said the training of trainers’ workshop would equip the professionals from these laboratories with special skills for teaching and mentoring their peers in the country.

Participants for the two weeks would be taken through how to teach SLMTA using the SLMTA tool kits and how to teach back their peers.