We Say No To The Health Reform Bill For These 3 Reasons –Lab Scientists

Lab scientists in the country hav stated a capital No to the health reform bill in proposition in the country, dishing out 3 reasons why it should not be allowed to proceed.

Speaking under the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), they point to the Executive Bill HB: 2701, currently before the National Assembly.

The health reform bill seeks to amend key provisions of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria Act, particularly Sections 3 and 29,.

According to the lab scientists, its passage would harvest many problems including:

1. Compromise of patients’ safety
2. Triggering of fresh inter-professional conflict, but summarily
3. Destabilisation of the healthcare system

“This bill does not represent reform; it represents regression. It is dangerous, destabilising, and profoundly misaligned with science and global best practice”,

AMLSN National President, Dr. Casmir Ifeanyi, stated today in Abuja while addressing journalists.

Not only is it a dangerous regression disguised as reform, it is misaligned with global best practices and inimical to Nigeria’s healthcare delivery, the AMLSN president stated

Raising a number of points in opposition to the health reform bill, Dr Ifeanyi stated amongst others:

“A regulatory system driven by politics rather than expertise is not reform; it is institutional sabotage. Leadership in medical laboratory science cannot be detached from scientific competence.

“Collaboration is not co-regulation. What is being proposed is not synergy, but structural overreach and professional capture”.

On the one hand, the association is concerned about the eventual restructuring of the governing board of the body responsible for the lab science in the country- Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria.

These would not be in the interest of both the sector and the members, the association chairman contended.

The AMLSN stated its opposition to the proposed inclusion of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria in the MLSCN governing board, stating the situation in health systems in other countries of the world with best practices.

Citing the United Kingdom, United States and nearby South Africa as examples, he argued that they maintain clear boundaries between professional regulatory bodies, with collaboration occurring at the level of clinical practice rather than governance.

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“Over 70 per cent of clinical decisions depend on laboratory-generated evidence. To exclude laboratory scientists from diagnostic contributions is to separate evidence from its ownership and institutionalise confusion,” he said, while also condemning a related provision in HB:2695, which seeks to amend the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act.

His argument is that it attempts to subsume core laboratory science functions—including molecular diagnostics, genetic testing, and assisted reproductive technologies—under medical practice.

“This is not about professional rivalry. It is about patient safety and the survival of a critical pillar of Nigeria’s healthcare system. Healthcare must be guided by evidence, not expediency”, the AMLSN said while urging President Bola Tinubu and the leadership of the National Assembly to immediately halt the legislative process and allow for broader stakeholder consultation.

“Deviation that weakens standards is not innovation; it is the exportation of risk to citizens,” he warned.