Procurement System in Ghana may be a barrier to Medical Laboratory Service Provision

In recent years, stakeholders have discussed the procurement system in Ghana. While the system is designed to ensure transparency and accountability in the acquisition of goods and services, its implementation has had unintended consequences on various sectors, including medical laboratory services.

To assure quality in procurement and supply chain management, the ISO 15189:2022 has included requirements for ensuring impartiality and conflict of inflict in medical laboratory service provision. This requirement is not only limited to the medical laboratory scientists but to all laboratory users including contractors. The management of the health facility and all others involved in the provision of services directly or indirectly are required to be impartial. This requirement is to reduce the risk of harm to client in the provision of services. Simply, financial, social and economic pressures must not compromise patient safety. It is also a requirement to ensure that procedures are in place to monitor conflict of interest in medical laboratory operations.

In Ghana, medical laboratory services play a critical role in the healthcare delivery system. Laboratory tests and results inform the diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases. However, the procurement system has created challenges that affect the quality and timeliness of laboratory services.

One significant effect of the procurement system on medical laboratory services is the delay in acquiring essential supplies and equipment. The bureaucratic and slow procurement process often results in stockouts of critical reagents and consumables, forcing laboratories to suspend or delay testing. We often must wait for months to receive essential supplies, which affects our ability to provide timely and quality services.

Another challenge created by the procurement system is the focus on cost rather than quality. The system prioritizes the lowest bidder, which often results in the acquisition of substandard equipment and supplies. Because of this companies in the procurement change can bid with invoices from their system suppliers ensuring that their prices are lower can other invoices presented in the bidding process.

There are instances where we have received equipment that is not compatible with our existing infrastructure or does not meet our quality standards. This affects the medical laboratory scientist’s ability to provide accurate and reliable results.

To address the challenges created by the procurement system, stakeholders must advocate for the right reforms in Ghana's supply chain. The Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health must work together to streamline the procurement process, prioritize quality over cost, and minimize the human factor in the procurement system.

This is a need to minimize human interactions in the procurement system by the introduction of an electronic procurement system. This can ensure that entities bidding can be well monitored to avoid practices where supporting invoices are just presented to outwit the system.

Since procurement is a specialized area there is the need to train health professionals on the Procurement Law and standards of practice in the area to sure that quality is assured. There is the need to include issues of contact and procurement management in the training od healthcare professionals to ensure that they acquire skills relevant for their professional practice.

It is important there is transparency in healthcare contract and procurement management. In some situations, the key users are not very well informed about the contracts entered into by management. In most situations the end user who is not much informed about the contracts and transaction takes the blame for contact failures. Why is it that suppliers would want to sell to the private service provider at considerably lower rate and inflate prices of the same item to government agencies? What is it that in government institutions suppliers are not paid on time which contribute to high pricing. These and other questions must be the basis for us to reloo at our supply and procurement system generally in healthcare to put the interest of our clients ahead any other interest.

To conclude, the procurement system in Ghana has had unintended consequences on medical laboratory services. The delays, the focus on cost rather than quality, and the many human factors that result in collusion among people in the supply chain must be looked at and reformed. Reforms are necessary to address these challenges and ensure that medical laboratory services in Ghana are of high quality and meet international standards. The ISO 15189:2022 empowers the medical laboratory scientist to find proactive systems with the support of management to ensure effective and quality assured procurement systems. There is the need to review the current procurement systems in the interest of the patient.

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