Statement from the Barbados National Standards Institution (BNSI) for World Accreditation Day 2021
Today 9 June 2021, we at the Barbados National Standards Institution (BNSI) join the rest of the world in celebration of World Accreditation Day, 2021. Accreditation speaks to the independent verification that an organization satisfies established quality standards and makes an impartial assessment of its competence to conduct specific tasks related to testing, inspection and certification.
This year’s theme is Accreditation: ‘Supporting the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals’. Functioning as the national accreditation focal point, BNSI provides support to entities seeking accreditation, as part of the support in developing the country’s quality infrastructure. Of particular interest is the sustainable goal in support of good health and well-being.
The ongoing “COVID-19” pandemic is primarily a health crisis, but it also has far reaching economic consequences. As a global crisis it is posing challenges to humanity that have never been experienced before. Reliable results coming out of medical laboratories in Barbados are essential in the management of the pandemic locally. It more evident now than ever, that quality and accuracy of laboratory results provide essential contribution to the diagnosis, managed care and therapeutic monitoring of the highly infectious disease.
With the limited resources throughout our healthcare system, including the size of the workforce and the expertise to conduct tests, embracing quality management by the way of accreditation is key. It is critical therefore, to implement sustainable quality assurance through accreditation in COVID-19 testing laboratories. Through the BNSI, Barbados has adopted the international standard ISO 15189: 2012 Medical laboratories – Requirements for quality and competence, which when followed, demonstrates competence to perform testing of COVID-19 and is a guarantee for accurate and reliable test results being performed.
We at BNSI congratulate the efforts of all the management and staff of accredited facilities in country and we encourage more entities to join the institution as a member and obtain the confidence that this global recognition provides.
