MBS to calibrate hospital equipment - Nation Online

Source: The Nation Online
Author: Allan Nyasulu

Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) has moved to start calibrating medical equipment in the country to add value to the health sector and ensure accurate diagnosis.

MBS deputy director general Thomas Senganimalunje said this on Wednesday at Mzuzu Central Hospital when the bureau conducted a medical equipment calibration exercise as part of the World Metrology Day commemoration which falls on May 20.

He said: "As our corporate social responsibility, we are doing this exercise countrywide to contribute and add value to the health sector with our services."

Senganimalunje said calibration, a process of checking the integrity of measurement by the determination of the relationship between the output and the input quality, ensures accurate measurement of medical equipment and aids medical personnel in offering precise diagnoses.

He said: "For instance, in the giving of a dose to a child, mass is one of the measurements which is taken. So if the mass is not accurate, the child can be overdosed or underdosed. "

Mzuzu Central Hospital spokesperson Arnold Kayira hailed the exercise as essential in the provision of quality health services at the hospital.

"This is going to improve the quality of the service that we offer to patients," he said.

May 20, which is World Metrology Day, commemorates the signing of the Metre Convention in 1875, which established the foundations for international collaboration in the science of measurement and maintaining uniformity worldwide.