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When a clinic cannot arrange a diagnostic test, the patient may have to travel to another hospital. Yet HIV and tuberculosis programmes already transport samples from clinics to laboratories. Ifedayo Adetifa argues that sharing these routes for other tests could expand clinics’ diagnostic services, reduce providers’ sample transport costs and spare patients travel expenses.
“If we are serious about integrated care, the diagnostic optimisation has to be integrated too, designed around the shared platform a patient actually meets rather than around a single programme's priorities,” writes Mr Adetifa, a Physician Epidemiologist and former Director General at CDC Nigeria.
This requires reliable sample collection, laboratories with trained staff and funding to keep services running. Adetifa calls for governments to budget for these costs so that access to testing does not depend on donor support.
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