Under the sponsorship of the United Kingdom, 23 laboratory trainers from the teaching and regional hospitals throughout the country on Friday began a four-day workshop to upgrade their knowledge to bring the quality of laboratory tests in Ghana to international standards.

The workshop is to upgrade the knowledge of the trainers, who will impart such knowledge to clinicians at the hospitals on how to use laboratory services to improve health care. The workshop forms part of a three-year regional in-service training programme for laboratory staff.

The in-service training programme is being supported by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom and is designed to assist the Ministry of Health to upgrade primary health care services in Ghana.

Dr Imelda Bates, a senior lecturer in tropical haematology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and a resource person for the workshop, said discussions are going on with the Ministry of Health in the training programme.

Dr Bates said next year the laboratory trainers would also run educational sessions for clinicians to help them use laboratory tests more effectively. "By the end of the programme, patients and their doctors would be confident that results they get from the Ministry of Health laboratories would be of international standard," she said.