Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) at the flu clinic of the Victoria Hospital was launched, this morning, in the presence of the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Kumar Jagutpal; the Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Deepak Balgobin; the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan, Mr Shuichiro Kawaguchi; and the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ms Amanda Serumaga.
In his keynote address, Minister Jagutpal recalled that the Government of Mauritius entered into a cost-sharing agreement with the UNDP to digitalise the management of COVID-19 by implementing the LIMS in government-owned health laboratory networks, ensuring diseases surveillance by providing LIMS access to public health offices, and implementing an embarkation/disembarkation platform to ease the flow of incoming passengers at the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (SSR) International Airport.
The funding was provided by the Japanese Authorities through the UNDP Project “Supporting an Inclusive and Multi-Sectoral Response to COVID-19 and addressing its Socio-Economic Impact in the Republic of Mauritius”, he added.
Dr Jagutpal underlined that under this Agreement, the UNDP is providing support to build the COVID-19 LIMS through an open-source software with the help of the University of Washington (Department of Global Health).
The implementation of the LIMS will span over two years and will be in phases, he said. He further indicated that as at date, the COVID-19 LIMS is fully functional at the Central Health Laboratory and all the flu clinics in the five regional hospitals, as well as the SSR Airport.
In addition, a three-day training from the 16 to 18 October 2021 was held with 60 officers including Health Records Cadre, Nursing Officers and Laboratory personnel of the Ministry with the UNDP on the LIMS.
The Health Minister announced that in the second phase, the COVID-19 LIMS is being scaled up into a National LIMS to include the other tests in the virology and molecular biology laboratory. The National LIMS will be extended to the other services of the Central Health Laboratory such as the biochemistry, bacteriology and haematology.
This will be followed by connectivity to the different Laboratories of the Regional Hospitals and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Rodrigues will be equipped with the LIMS by July 2022, he stated.
He added that eventually, the National LIMS will be extended to the major health institutions namely the Moka Eye Hospital, and the Cancer Hospital adding that the overall deployment of the LIMS is expected to be completed by December 2022.
Speaking about the National e-Health Project, Dr Jagutpal emphasised that the Central Informatics Bureau has prepared the technical specifications and cost estimates for the National e-Health Project.
The UNDP is therefore also providing for the services of a Consultant to review of the Terms of Reference of the National e-Health Project and prepare the bidding documents, he said.
In line with the implementation of the National e-Health Project, the Ministry of Health and Wellness is envisaging to have the support of the UNDP to draft a Digital Health Law to provide for a comprehensive legal framework around the use of Digital Health technologies and solutions, he added.
For his part, Minister Balgobin underlined that after the successful implementation of the LIMS at the Central Health Laboratory of the Victoria Hospital, the System has been extended to flu-clinics of the five regional hospitals as well as at the SSR International Airport adding that it has been configured for delivering COVID-19 test results through SMS and emails.
This exercise, he said, was simplified with the leveraging of the InfoHighway data sharing platform. This platform was set up by the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation for the exchange of information between Government agencies; and in the case of the LIMS, sharing was done between the Civil Status Division and the Ministry of Health and Wellness, he indicated.
He further stated that the platform has been critically useful to share vaccination information from the database of the Ministry of Health and Wellness which allowed one to view the citizens’ Vaccination Passes in digital format on beSafeMoris and the MoKloud platforms.
Furthermore, Minister Balgobin underlined that his Ministry and the Ministry of Health and Wellness are currently working towards the implementation of the National e-Health Project.
This transformative project, he recalled, would be hosting patients’ data and provide a seamless management of hospitals bringing better convenience for patients and their companions calling at our health institutions.
He added that an expression of interest is under consideration for the procurement and implementation of the e-Health System. He pointed out that one salient feature of the e-Health project is that it is intended to interface with the LIMS.
He highlighted that doctors will be able to order clinical tests, like blood tests, and receive the results electronically. In preparation for the coming into operation of these new features, the LIMS has been integrated with the test machines at the Central Health Laboratory, he said.
In his address, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan, Mr Shuichiro Kawaguchi spoke of the importance of flu clinics which are a one-stop-shop which have facilitated the task of health practitioners in treating patients across Mauritius.
The idea of extending the LIMS to the hospitals and flu clinics proves even more resourceful to the health system, he said. According to him, improving the laboratory productivity and efficiency plays an important role in both public and private health especially when the system is overstretched due to the COVID-19.
He dwelt on the importance of laboratories which are a critical part of the health systems and added that Japan will continue to mobilise funds for its partners to better assist them in their attempt to enhance their health sectors.
The Resident Representative of the UNDP, Ms Amanda Serumaga congratulated the Ministry of Health and Wellness for having been able to deploy the LIMS during the COVID-19 pandemic. She underlined that some 100 Database administrators, record officers, and Laboratory users have been trained to use the system.
The UNDP with the assistance of the Government of Japan and Mauritius, is also procuring servers for all regional hospitals, Bar Code printers and scanners, and an autoclave to manage medical waste for the Victoria Hospital, she said.
Ms Serumaga also expressed satisfaction that the UNDP Country Office for Mauritius is further assisting in the health safeguards with the border re-opening with the implementation of digital platforms linked to the key offices and the sanitary unit at the SSR Airport.
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