Under the CDC and Amref Health Africa Cooperative Agreement, the government of the Republic of South Sudan and its health sector partners launched the newly revised curriculum for Diploma in Medical Laboratory Sciences at an occasion held in Juba, August 21, 2019. The Undersecretary, Ministry of Health South Sudan Dr Makur Matur Kariom launched the first-ever national curriculum for diploma in medical laboratory science to be used by all health sciences training institutions in South Sudan.
During this launch, Mr Morrish Ojok, the Country Representative at Amref Health Africa in South Sudan announced and handed over a donation of six laptops and 21 desktops computers with webcam and monitors to equip government medical laboratory training schools with the required materials needed for implementing the new curriculum. He noted that the completion of the new curriculum was made possible with funding from CDC and technical support from members of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) and Training Institutions in the Republic of South Sudan and the Ministry of Health.
Mr Morrish acknowledged and appreciated the national Ministry of Health for providing an enabling environment to Amref Health Africa work in the health sector and promised continued commitment of the organisation towards strengthening Human Resources for Health capacity and improving health services in the country.
Dr Michael Mading, The Director-General for Training and Professional Development at the Ministry of Health in the Republic of South Sudan also expressed gratitude to Amref Health Africa, CDC South Sudan, and partners who have dedicated their time and resources to review and complete the curriculum. He mentioned that currently, there are six health sciences institutes in the country that provide courses in Medical Laboratory Science, an improvement from originally only three in 2012.
Dr Lul Lojok Deng, the Director-General for Public Health Laboratory and National Blood Transfusion Servicesthanked Amref Health Africa for completing the new curriculum.He noted thatlaboratory services are the backbone of quality health care in the practice of medicine. “
“This curriculum and equipment should be used to strengthen training programs in medical laboratory so that the country can address the big challenge of poorly trained laboratory workers and end the disease of having fake or poorly trained practitioners in the South Sudan health systems”. He requested for continued support from partners so that more skilled health care workers are trained in the country and ensure delivery of quality health services across the country.
The CDC representative South Sudan encouraged the government of South Sudan to use the new curriculum to standardize content and training on medical laboratory science delivered across all institutions in the country and promote quality health services. He emphasized the need to put to good use the IT equipment donated by Amref Health Africa and ensure its used for its intended purpose.
According to the undersecretary in the Ministry of Health, South Sudan is still limited in terms of the human resources for health. He commended the work that is being done by partners to support government goals. He expressed gratitude to all the partners for their continual support in improving the health sector in the country. He thanked Amref Health Africa for supporting training of medical cadres like nurses, midwives, and clinical officers.
Dr. Makur called on Partners like Amref Health Africa to support training of Tutors in Medical Laboratory Science. He concluded by saying that the new curriculum launched and the donated ICT Equipment should also benefit training of Medical Laboratory Science tutors and more health care personnel. He also promised that the national ministry will continue to commit and support all efforts to improving and strengthening quality of health care in South Sudan.