Question NW141 to the Minister of Health

Reply:

According to the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS):

a) Toxicology tests are conducted at three of the four Forensic Chemistry Laboratories namely, Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Pretoria. The toxicology tests are supposed to be tested within 90 days from the date the samples are registered in the testing laboratory. Any test that has not been completed and authorised within 90 days is classified as backlog. Multiple factors have contributed to the backlogs that developed at the three laboratories, including incomplete information on the request forms, inadequate infrastructure, aging analytic equipment, interruptions in power supply, inadequate water supply, the COVID-19 epidemic, and shortages in human resources.

The current backlog at the Cape Town Forensic Chemistry laboratory is 6,792 cases with Johannesburg and Pretoria laboratories at 15,358 and 16,824 cases respectively

 

b) The measures taken by the NHLS to eradicate the backlog include:

• • Increasing laboratory processing capacity to analyse samples and ensuring the optimal use of resources within the laboratories.
  • Acquiring additional laboratory space in Pretoria to process both the toxicology and blood alcohol samples.
  • New posts for toxicology analysts were created for the new laboratories in Pretoria.
  • The new toxicology laboratory will analyse new cases and the old laboratory will focus on the backlogged cases only.
  • Similar plans are in process to increase laboratory capacity for toxicology cases at the Johannesburg and Cape Town laboratories and to offer a toxicology service at the Durban laboratory.
  • The NHLS, in conjunction with the Forensic Pathology Services (FPS) in the Department of Health, is developing strategies to address ageing samples in the backlog and how to best manage these samples.

c) Each toxicology case that is registered in the laboratory may include a varying number of biological specimens that were taken during the autopsy and each specimen may require to be tested more than once or on different sets of instruments, depending on the test requirements. In the pre-analytic stage, specimens may require specialised preparation, depending on the tests that will be conducted.

As a result, it is difficult to quantify the number of toxicology tests that are processed in a day as tests run concurrently and completion periods differ vastly between cases. Hence, Toxicology cases are allocated in batches of 15 cases per analyst per month.

d) It is difficult to estimate when the backlog will be eradicated, however, the NHLS remains committed to improving service delivery at all four Forensic Chemistry Laboratories and to accelerating the reduction of the toxicology backlogs at these laboratories.

END.