Africa-Press – Lesotho. Minister of Health Hon. Semano Sekatle received medical laboratory equipment aimed to capacitate the National Health Training Centre (NHTC) on Thursday.
Donated by ICAP Lesotho, the equipment includes microscopes, laptops, printers and projectors. NHTC Director General Nthabiseng Molise, speaking at the handover ceremony, noted that this equipment is significant to
the diploma laboratory science students. She appreciated the support, saying ICAP Lesotho is implementing the project called Expand Access to Quality Laboratory
Services in the Kingdom of Lesotho. “The project provides technical assistance and support to the Ministry of Health (MoH) to improve access to quality
laboratory services over a period of 5 years which started in 2020 to 2025 and it is funded by President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) through
Centres for Disease Control and prevention (CDC). The objectives of this project are to improve laboratory infrastructure and human resource capacity to
develop quality management system for laboratories and point of care testing sites as well as to strengthen laboratory information and data management
systems to capture as well as retrace data,” Molise declared. She said the equipment will enhance teaching and learning for both teachers and students in the teaching and
learning environment and they will eventually benefit towards attainment of required competency. She said the aspired competency will eventually translate
into improved quality laboratory services. ICAP Director Felix Ndangije indicated that human resource is identified as one of the key components of Lesotho’s health
system, to achieve sustainable HIV epidemic comfort. “NHTC plays a key role in providing much needed human resources for medical laboratory services in
Lesotho. This equipment will be used by teachers and students to improve their teaching and learning experience. Quality laboratory systems are critical in ensuring
that we provide accurate results in testing and monitoring patient’s treatment,” he outlined. “So far, this partnership improved collaboration of medical laboratory system programs for provision of service
training, quality management services as well as continuous professional development to contribute towards Lesotho’s goal of reaching HIV epidemic comfort
by 2030 in a sustainable manner,” explained the Director. In his key note address, Hon. Sekatle highlighted that the equipment is needed mostly to enhance teaching and
learning. He extended his gratitude to the government and the people of United States of America (USA) for their support in various ways through a number of
agencies and NGOs for many programs including disease programs in Tuberculosis (TB), HIV/AIDS and also in the program of nursing, teaching and education.
“The ministry has two major tasks which are to prevent and manage as well as to cure diseases, therefore, NHTC as a leading agency in addressing primary health will
not be turned into a purely academic institution but remain frontline disease prevention and control agency. It will continue to produce appropriate and
adequate skills to prevent and tackle primary health; as a result, these precious gifts came at the right time, at the opportune moment. We are in dire need of it and it will be put into good hands and good use,” Sekatle said.
For More News And Analysis About Lesotho Follow Africa-Press
