The Department of Pathology, The University of the West Indies (UWI), was presented with the Certification (Award) of Accreditation in conformance with the ISO 15189:2012 International standard from the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC). The honour was bestowed on the occasion of the 10^th Anniversary of the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC), at an awards function hosted at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica.

The accreditation scope for the Department of Pathology includes Chemical Pathology, Haematology, Flow Cytometry, and Cytology.

Dr. Donovan McGrowder (Director of the Accreditation Committee) and Mrs. Julene Smith-Valentine (Quality Manager) received the Certificate from Mrs. Andrene Collings, Acting Permanent Secretary to MICAF, in the presence of JANAAC’s Chairman, Mr. Simon Roberts and Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Sharonmae Shirley.

In her remarks, Mrs. Smith-Valentine expressed gratitude to the Head of the Department of Pathology , Dr. Gilian Wharfe, the Director of the Accreditation committee, Dr. McGrowder, the Quality Assurance Team (Mr. R. White, Mrs. G. Martindale-Williams, Mrs. G. Hamm,  Mrs. C. Green, Mrs. A. Low-Lewis, Mr. G. Burnell and Mr. K. Vaz), and all staff members in the Sub-Departments for working assiduously in making the milestone possible.

“We have been working towards this milestone since 2002, and it would be negligent of me not to recognize the hard-working staff now retired (Mrs. V. Hanson, Mrs. V. Smith, and Mrs. J. Powell-Jones) who worked alongside Dr. McGrowder to drive this process before I came onboard in 2014”, said Mrs. Smith-Valentine.

She concluded that as the Department of Pathology moves forward, the goal is to continue to strive for excellence in the services offered to clients through the competence of staff and the quality work generated.