The Regional Laboratory, located in the Riyadh region, has received the first-place award throughout the Middle East for the sections of bacteria, tuberculosis (TB), and parasites and viruses at the medical laboratories and blood banks, on the occasion of its obtaining of the degree (99%) in the evaluation of all the external standard samples submitted, as part of the External Quality Program, for testing the standard samples coming along from the World Health Organization (WHO) to Muscat in May 2011.
This was made known by Dr. Ibrahim Al-Omar, Director-General of Laboratories and Blood banks, who further explained that the Regional Laboratory of Riyadh is the only laboratory in the Middle East to participate in this program. This reflects the performance development in the Kingdom's laboratories and blood banks, which seek to provide the best and fullest laboratories services for citizens.
For his part, Dr. Khaled Abdulrahman, Director of the Regional Laboratory of Riyadh, pointed out that the laboratory consists of 17 sections, including sections for genetic diseases biomolecules, and drugs. It supports the laboratories located in Riyadh, as it functions as a referential laboratory, in addition to conducting confirmatory examinations for patients with haemorrhagic fever coming from all the Kingdom's laboratories. Dr. Abdulrahman concluded by saying that the Laboratory has conducted 6.392.906 tests, thus numbering all it counterparts.