Clinical laboratories face significant problems under the GHS, with servicing times up to four times longer than before, president of the association of Clinical Laboratory Directors Biomedical and Clinical Laboratory Scientists, Charilaos Charilaou told CNA.
He reported problems with the GHS’ software as well as delays created by the number of referrals each patient needs to receive examinations.
“Each patients needs from one to four different referrals, instead of just one for all examinations, so for a laboratory there are four different processes and it takes four times longer to complete,” he said.
“All this has been designed for hospitals, where laboratories are scattered. They take blood from each patient in four vials and send it to different laboratories. It is the architecture of the system. Too many referrals create problems in time management,” he added.
In the private sector, “we developed a different way of work in order to be faster, efficient and able to finish our job in a time that left both the doctor and the patient satisfied,” he said.
“We are now lost in this process. The system has been designed for hospitals. Before we had one referral for hematological, biochemical, biomedical and immunological examinations. Now we get four different papers,” he explained.
Nevertheless, Charilaou went on to express his optimism for upcoming changes in GHS’ software.
