Question NW142 to the Minister of Health
29 February 2024 - NW142
Clarke, Ms M to ask the Minister of Health
What (a)(i) is the current backlog of blood analysis at the Johannesburg Forensic Chemistry Laboratory, (ii) measures have been put in place to address the backlog and (iii) is the total number of blood analyses that are conducted on each day in the specified facility and (b) by what date will the backlog be eradicated?
Reply:
According to the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS):
a) (i) Blood Alcohol tests are conducted at all four Forensic Chemistry Laboratories in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, and Pretoria. These test requests comprise the bulk of services delivered by the FCLs (more than 80% of all test requests received). The blood alcohol tests are supposed to be tested within 90 days from the time the samples are registered in the testing laboratory. Any test that has not been completed and authorised within 90 days is classified as backlog. There are no backlogs recorded at the Durban FCL and backlogs that were previously reported at the Cape Town and Pretoria FCLs have been cleared. The remaining backlog in blood alcohol tests is recorded at the Johannesburg FCL and is currently at 35,176 cases.
(ii) The Measures taken to eradicate the backlog include the following:
- Additional space and analytic instruments have been acquired at the new Pretoria laboratory that accommodates the Pretoria Blood Alcohol section.
- New samples for blood alcohol testing are referred to the Pretoria laboratory to reduce the number of samples referred to the Johannesburg laboratory.
- Shift systems are in use for analysts at the Johannesburg FCL and a 30.5% reduction in the backlog has been achieved from 01 April 2023 to 31 January 2024.
- A new building has been identified that will accommodate further expansion of the Johannesburg FCL and the procurement of new analytic instruments is underway for the Johannesburg FCL.
(iii) Blood alcohol samples in the Forensic Chemistry Laboratories are processed in batches of 150 samples per week per analyst. Each test is processed on two separate instruments as required for quality purposes and additional fluoride analysis is performed to confirm the validity of the sample. On average, 4000 samples are completed per month.
b) The backlog is expected to be cleared by over 8 months from 01 March 2024, with the current staff and instrument capacity.
END.