Veterinary diagnostic labs are the powerful ally for the diagnosis, prevention and monitoring of animal diseases in any country. Labs are ordered for test for many reasons. Errors could be present in these tests. So to avoid detrimental effects of these errors a quality control system is required. This system is maintained by following the standards given by recognized international organizations like ISO, OIE, WHO, FAO and CDC etc. These authorities make the standards which should be followed by the VDLs to improve their quality of tests and management to give precise and accurate results which will help them in being well reputed lab which give internationally accepted quality of results.
In this study 4 private and 4 public sectors Veterinary diagnostic Labs was selected and it was assured to labs that their information will remain confidential as data was used only for the research purposes. Labs were identified by the codes given to them for study purpose. Information required for this study was gained through a questionnaire. Information regarding identity of lab, contact numbers, location and type of testing/diagnosis was gathered. Information about the parameters of quality control like building design, power backup, sections of lab, operating equipments, development of log books, availability of certificate of analysis for chemicals, availability of material safety data sheet was gathered. Quality assurance issues were also addressed by gathering information about internal quality assurance program, proficiency testing etc. Then this data was analyzed by using SPSS to interpret the results.
The data was analyzed statistically through frequency distribution by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18.0 for development of Graphs and Tables.
Summary
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requirements about personnel and equipments were 80% and 87.5% while minimum values were 40% and 25% respectively. Maximum value about quality control measures and waste management were 89.47% and 70% and minimum percentages were 36.40% and 40% respectively. Results have shown that 100% requirements of environmental monitoring and customer care were fulfilled by some labs while some labs only fulfill 20% of these parameters.
Conclusion
This study shows that in Lahore district veterinary diagnostic labs are not giving proper attention to quality of their system and there is no significant difference between setups of private and public sector laboratories.