📋 Tender Overview
WHO EU and Government of Australia support the Government of Indonesia to provide quality assurance in laboratoriesA laboratory quality management system is essential to ensure that COVID19 laboratories in Indonesia provide accurate and reliable results. One of the ways to inspect a quality management system is the external quality assurance programme EQAP which evaluates performance using methods such as proficiency testing retesting and on-site evaluation.As part of an effort to monitor the quality of testing in COVID-19 laboratories around the world the World Health Organization WHO organized a global round of proficiency testing by distributing unknown samples in the form of panels to member countries. These panels arrived in Indonesia recently and are now in the process of being distributed to the provinces.In Indonesia 1 034 laboratories in 34 provinces will receive the panels. Every laboratory will test the panels and the Ministry of Health will input the results through an online platform. Results are evaluated and analysed and laboratories will be informed about their performance. The EQAP process is important so we can see which laboratories perform well and which ones need support said Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin. When every laboratory adheres to the global standard and able to provide reliable services citizens will benefit. They can get trustworthy results from laboratories and then get proper treatment based on those results.The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Programs RCPAQAP will compile the results from Indonesia Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Myanmar Nepal Sri Lanka Thailand and Timor-Leste. The compilation will then be sent to WHO which will analyse the results to generate a global COVID-19 EQAP report. Our shared health security depends on whether COVID-19 transmission rates can be controlled in our region. Australia is supporting Indonesia with expert policy and technical advice to mitigate the spread of the virus noted the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Penny Williams.Meanwhile the European Union EU supports the distribution of panels and supportive supervision visits to laboratories in Indonesia as part of the EU-WHO Southeast Asia Health Pandemic Response and Preparedness programme. This cooperation reaffirms the continued EUs commitment to support Indonesias response to COVID-19 and to strengthen the health system in the country. Global cooperation and solidarity is the way to defeat the virus and start a sustainable global recovery said the EU Ambassador to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam Vincent Piket.The proficiency testing in EQAP will provide the Ministry of Health MoH with a comprehensive overview of COVID-19 laboratory performance at global and national level. It allows performance comparison provides early warning for systemic problems provides objective evidence of the testing quality indicates areas for improvement and identifies training needs. The Prof. Sri Oemijati National Infectious Disease Laboratory of the MoH as the national COVID-19 referral laboratory that coordinates the intervention will utilize the proficiency testing results as the basis to conduct supporting supervision visits and technical assistance to underperforming laboratories to help them improve their accuracy and reliability.Furthermore the data will help WHO to fine-tune its COVID-19 technical assistance to member countries including Indonesia.
