Medical law: Exploring doctors' knowledge on the laws regulating clinical and medical laboratories in Nigeria

BACKGROUND The Nigerian healthcare system has experienced repeated disharmony between the Medical Laboratory Scientist and the Pathologist. This may be seemingly due to lack of understanding of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) Act and the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act of Nigeria (MPAct) by those in the sector. These laws have clearly defined the two professions, their specific job role and the laboratories designated to them. The clinical laboratory is not the same as medical laboratory based on the Acts of the law that established these two laboratories. The understanding of these Acts of the law will help to mitigate this disharmony in the healthcare sector. OBJECTIVE This study explored the knowledge of doctors on the laws regulating clinical laboratory and medical laboratory in the Nigerian healthcare sector in order to minimise disharmony in the health sector. MATERIALS AND METHOD The study was across-sectional descriptive survey. A sample size calculated was 216 using the Lesley Kish formula. (8Simple random sampling was used to select participants at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital ,Calabar, Nigeria. The data forth is study was collected using semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire and it was analysed using SPSS version 21. RESULT The ratio of female to male participants was 1: 3.6, majority {132 (61.1%)}were less than 40 years of age and 41 (19%) had worked for more than 10 years. More participants {164 (75.9%)}were aware of the MP Act when compared to awareness of MLSCN Act {98 (45.4%)}. However, fewer number of participants had actually read the MP Act {56 (25.9%)} and the MLSCN Act {32 (14.8%)}. There was a statistically significant difference (p = 0.0b5etw)e en awareness, reading of both Acts and understanding the job specifications of these two laboratories in the Nigerian health CONCLUSION The knowledge of the Acts regulating these two laboratories is poor among doctors. There is need to create more awareness through seminars, workshops and scientific conferences.