The Ministry of Health (MOH) has launched an awareness campaign on malpractice at medical laboratories, to be followed by a monitoring campaign next week.
In an awareness infographic published on its twitter page, MOH highlighted that the main malpractices at medical laboratories include: the practitioner or establishment has expired license or none at all, inadequate implementation of infection control and medical waste control, the failure to implement proper laboratory procedures such as insufficient medical equipment and supplies and maintenance, as well as having expired materials and poor storage of samples. They also include exceeding laboratory's activities such as: conducting tests not covered by the lab's license and non-availability of the minimum staff. It pointed out that penalties include imprisonment of the practitioner for six months, a fine of up to SR 100,000 and 150,000 for the health establishment, as well as cancellation of practitioner and establishment license, license suspension for two years and closing down the establishment.
It is noteworthy that MOH pays great attention to monitoring and inspection to raise the level of compliance with regulations and policies to maintain the safety of the services provided to patients, through surprised periodic monitoring by inspection teams across the Kingdom regions and provinces. It urges everyone to report any health violations to the (937) cervices center.
MOH has established the Assistant Agency for Compliance to follow-up compliance with the regulations and professional ethics in health sector. These procedures falls within MOH's developmental initiatives and scheduled campaigns to control and verify the health sector's compliance.