GNBS lauds companies with accredited status

BY RENNELLA BOURNE

The Guyana National Bureau of Standard (GNBS) joined with the rest of the world in celebrating World Accreditation Day under the theme, “Accreditation: A Global Tool to Support Public Policy”.

While Word Accreditation Day is celebrated by many North American countries that promote their businesses which have been accredited, Guyana lacks severely in this respect since it only possess two laboratories that are accredited internationally.

The GNBS took the time on Thursday to celebrate and promote the two laboratories that have been accredited – Eureka Medical Laboratory (EML) and the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) laboratory. These two laboratories have overridden the challenges and became accredited by the Jamaican National Agency for Accreditation which is recognised by international standards.

Head of the Conformity Assessment Department at GNBS, Candelle Walcott-Bestwick expressed delight that the two laboratories are being recognised by international standards. “We have been putting much recognition to accreditation since 2010. I must say over the years, the sensitisation has grown; now two laboratories have been accredited in less than a year.”

Walcott-Bestwick added that policymakers should take note of accreditation since in these two cases, it reduces the cost for delays of retesting and it reduces rejections of shipments of rice.

Chief Executive Officer of Eureka Medical Laboratory Andrew Boyle, speaking with Guyana Times expressed his satisfaction of gaining an accredited status. He noted that while the company will not recoup the investments made to have the company accredited “what we have gained at EML is self-satisfaction to know that we are following the correct procedures and we are able to give patients their results with confidence.”

According to Boyle, “We have been improving every single day, “it is something that I see the need for. We have been improving our machinery and our equipment not because of accreditation but because we want to improve our services to the public.”

EML is not only located in the city but provides services to Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice); Charity and Anna Regina, Region Two (Pomeroon Supenaam); Rose Hall and New Amsterdam, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); Parika, Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); and Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

Allison Peters, Quality Control Manager of GRDB speaking with Guyana Times noted that the rice board’s laboratory gained accreditation one year ago and has instilled confidence in their work.

Peters emphasised, “The benefits of accreditation many do not understand, but accreditation does not have much benefits for us here but it is for the buyers that will recognise we have international standard and as long as they see that they usually become confident in our markets.”

She noted that the GRDB at its national certification status had to comply with many unnecessary retests at the miller’s expense but now accreditation has removed all of that.

The GRDB Research Assistant, Marsha Hohenkirk said she was proud of the new recognition the laboratory has received and noted that “accreditation has benefited the laboratory’s staff; enhancing the discipline in their testing so that errors cannot go out of the laboratory.”

Walcott-Bestwick noted that only the health and agricultural sectors are being impacted by the accreditation. “We would like to see more laboratories being accredited especially those for export, Guyana ready for business should mean more accredited facilities.”