Jamaicans Urged To Use Accredited Medical Labs

#Kingston, June 13, 2019 – Jamaica – The Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC) is urging citizens to use accredited medical laboratories.

“We recognise that a number of persons are receiving results that are conflicting and they have to do many retests because they have not been using accredited labs, so we would like to urge citizens to use accredited facilities,” Chief Executive Officer of JANAAC, Sharonmae Shirley, told JIS News.

Ms. Shirley was speaking at the JANAAC World Accreditation Day Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Breakfast Awards, held at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St. Andrew on June 7.  She explained that laboratories that are accredited by JANAAC go through an arduous process to ensure that they operate at the highest quality standards.

“We ensure that entities meet international standards, and JANAAC has developed a reputation for excellence undergirded by its notable achievement of being a signatory to the IAAC Multilateral Arrangement and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) for the ISO/IEC 17025 Standard for Testing Laboratories and the ISO 15189 Standard for Medical Laboratories,” Ms. Shirley said.

She noted that JANAAC’s accreditations provide the stamp of approval to Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs), and urged local and regional entities to become accredited.  “Without this international recognition, Jamaican producers, manufacturers, and exporters would require costly retesting in target markets and would not be able to competitively trade on the world market,” Ms. Shirley explained.

JANAAC is the only accreditation body in the English-speaking Caribbean delivering internationally recognised accreditation services and training to laboratories, and inspection and certification bodies.

Contact: Colleen Dawkins

Release: JIS

Photo Caption: Chief Executive Officer of JANAAC, Sharonmae Shirley, speaks at JANAAC’s World Accreditation Day Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Breakfast Awards, held at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel, on June 7.

(Photo: Adrian Walker)