The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has warned of consequences for the country’s health system if proposed amendments to key health sector laws are passed, citing risks to patient safety, regulatory standards and diagnostic quality.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Saturday during the association’s Special General Meeting, the National President, Dr. Casmir Ifeanyi, said the group would mobilise public opposition if its demand for further legislative review is ignored.

“What we are going to do, if our request for further legislative action is not granted. Without missing words, what we are going to do is to let Nigerians arise. We will get Nigerians to make a demand and to insist that anybody who participated in the passage of this bill does not return in 2027,” he said.

He said the amendments go beyond professional concerns and could affect healthcare delivery nationwide.

The association called for the suspension of legislative action on Executive Bill HB:2701 and its Senate counterpart, describing the proposals as regressive.

“This proposed amendment is ill-motivated, unnecessary, clandestinely advanced, and fundamentally anti-Nigerian people. If enacted, it will compromise patient safety, undermine medical laboratory scientific governance, erode regulatory independence, trigger avoidable inter-professional conflict, and create severe medico-legal uncertainty in Nigeria,” Ifeanyi said.

He criticised proposed changes to the governance structure of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, warning that reducing professional representation would weaken regulatory integrity.

“One cannot lead what one does not understand; regulation without scientific and technical competence is not leadership. It is rather a systemic endangerment,” he said.

He also faulted the proposed inclusion of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) on the council’s board.

“Collaboration is not co-regulation. What is being proposed is not synergy, but structural overreach and professional capture,” he said.

On diagnostic roles, Ifeanyi said the bill creates contradictions by broadly defining medical laboratory science while limiting practitioners’ authority, warning of “legal ambiguity, clinical delays, and increased patient risk.”

He added that a related amendment to the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act amounts to “a calculated, stealth-driven copy and paste incursion” into specialised areas such as molecular diagnostics and genetic testing.

“This is not reform: it is a calculated, stealth-driven copy and paste incursion, audaciously attempting to smuggle the core pillars of Medical Laboratory Science… into a framework where they neither belong nor are competently represented,” he said.

Citing global practice, he said laboratory scientists generate and validate diagnostic data while pathologists interpret results, warning that weakening standards would export risk to citizens.

“The national implications are profound. If enacted, this Bill will weaken medical laboratory regulation and accreditation systems, disrupt ISO 15189:2022 compliance, undermine disease surveillance mechanisms, and erode Nigeria’s global health credibility,” he said.

Insisting that legislative processes on the bills be halted for wider consultation and technical review, Ifeanyi said, “This is not about professional rivalry, it is not about institutional dominance. It is about patient safety, and the survival of a critical pillar of Nigeria’s healthcare system”.

On the implications of ignoring the association’s call, Ifeanyi said the burden would fall more on Nigerians than practitioners.

“These amendments are not going to hurt medical laboratory scientists alone, it is about the Nigerian health system that would be extremely impacted.

“By then we cannot guarantee the quality of medical laboratory services that will be provided in Nigeria anymore and the import is that lives will be compromised”.

He warned that weakening diagnostic standards could further worsen Nigeria’s global health ranking, “We will further become ranked. As of today we are 186, we may become 192 out of the 192 countries in the world with the worst health rankings.

“We may become 54 out of the 54 countries in the African continent,” he said.

Ifeanyi described medical laboratory science as central to healthcare delivery, clarifying that it is a distinct field on which diagnosis and treatment depend through laboratory evidence.

“Medical laboratory science, as determined by Nigerian courts and international reference documents and standards, is a profession distinct from medicine… focused on diagnostic testing… to detect, to diagnose, to treat, to monitor.

“Medical laboratory science is actually the wheel that drives global health security. It is the wheel that drives national health security.”

He alleged the amendment process excluded key stakeholders and raised concerns over the continued absence of governing boards for health sector regulatory councils.

“For you to have regulatory councils continue to operate for four years now without governing boards, all the doctors you have qualified, all the nurses you have qualified were actually, albeit, done illegally. That is what the law says,” he said.

He warned that the impact could extend across the health sector as more than 95 percent of health workers would be adversely affected if the bill is passed into law

Ifeanyi appealed to the Presidency and the National Assembly to halt the process.

“I am sure that President Bola Tinubu will not allow us to walk that door. Healthcare must be guided by evidence, not expediency. Nigeria must choose precision over politics.” (The Nation)