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Interview with Carmen Durán Parrondo, Director General of Public Health at the Xunta de Galicia's Department of Health

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23 July 2024 Interviews

The Public Health Veterinary Inspection Services, belonging to the General Directorate of Public Health, at the Xunta de Galicia's Department of Health, have recently obtained ENAC accreditation as an inspection body according to the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17020 standard to carry out the official control of slaughterhouses and agri-food industries in Pontevedra. This way, Galicia has become the first Spanish autonomous region to carry out these services in an accredited manner.

This recent accreditation is in addition to that of the Galician Public Health Laboratory based on the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard since 1998.

In this interview, Carmen Durán Parrondo, Director General of Public Health of the Xunta de Galicia's Department of Health, explains the value that accreditation brings to them in their assessment and control activities in the Public Health field.

 

The accreditation you have just received relates to official control inspections of slaughterhouses and agri-food industries. How important are these inspections in the field of Public Health?

Food safety inspections are essential for maintaining public health and ensuring that food released to the market is safe for consumption, thereby reducing the risk of foodborne illness.

Moreover, when we talk about food safety we refer not only to slaughterhouses and agri-food industries, but it also includes retailers and fish markets, as well as sample-taking in these establishments.

In conclusion, inspections in the public health field are fundamental for health protection strategies developed in any territory.  

 

What motivated you to request accreditation for official inspection activities?

One of the strategic general management lines is to set up quality policies that lead us to continuously improve in all the activities we carry out.

That is why two years ago we started this path, even knowing the difficulties we were going to encounter. We understood that this must be our roadmap and that all public services must ensure that they work under quality procedures that guarantee homogeneity and transparency for both consumers and companies in the sector.

 

What benefits do you expect to obtain from accreditation in terms of your internal operations?

The accreditation process involves an in-depth analysis of how the quality system functions, improving many organizational aspects and managing personnel. It has also involved setting up and improving communication channels between the different areas involved, as well as detecting opportunities for improvement.

All this revision of the existing system will enable us to be more efficient and, therefore, to further optimize our procedures.

 

And in relation to the food industry and consumers, what benefits do you think it can bring them?

This recognition guarantees consumers and citizens in general that all public health inspection procedures, in addition to being carried out in accordance with the applicable regulations, comply with the criteria of excellence established by ENAC nationally.

As indicated in the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17020 standard, the technical competence of the inspection staff to carry out official controls is assessed. What this indicates is that all our inspection staff's actions are carried out objectively, uniformly and following common protocols, which reassures the inspected companies and, of course, consumers.

 

Before obtaining this accreditation, the Galician Public Health Directorate already had an official accredited food control laboratory. What benefits has having this accreditation brought you in order to carry out these services?

The Galician Public Health Laboratory has been accredited since 1998 to carry out tests on agri-food products and water. As is now the case with the veterinary public health inspection, the Galician Public Health Laboratory (then the Laboratorios de SP de Lugo) opted for quality and was the first laboratory with its characteristics to be accredited according to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard in Spain.

Currently, it has a wide range of analytical services, both microbiological and physicochemical, in the food safety and environmental health fields. In fact, currently, 80% of the analyses carried out by the laboratory are accredited and the trend is to increase this percentage since regulations require that analyses be carried out in accredited laboratories.

Having an accredited technique implies that the internal work procedures are carried out according to the standards of excellence and therefore guarantee that the a priori results are intercomparable, minimizing biases.

Today, after more than 26 years, it is normal for laboratories to have most of their techniques accredited. Surely the same will happen in the future with the public health inspection or any other inspection within the public sector usually being accredited.

 

In what other areas do you consider that accreditation can be an instrument to serve Public Health?

We intend to continue this way and expand the scope to other Galician provinces in food safety inspection services. At the time, and due to the complexity of the scope, it was decided to start with a very-experienced province in receiving audits from both the European Commission and third countries. But, given the experience and what we have learned throughout this process, we are already prepared to tackle this project of extending the accreditation of official veterinary services to the whole of Galicia.

Subsequently, we will continue with accrediting environmental health activities, developed in this case by the official veterinary public health pharmaceutical inspectors.

To conclude, I would like to reaffirm the importance that Directorate General of Public Health attaches to quality, which is a priority issue for the organization. In fact, at the end of May the new Directorate of Health structure was published and a new sub-directorate called Sub-Directorate General for Management, Quality and Innovation was set up. One of this sub-directorate's objectives is quality management and implementing quality programmes in the activities of the different units involved in public health with the aim of guaranteeing that the services provided to the citizens are continuously improved. Therefore, it is a declaration of intent that will enable us to move in the right direction towards an organization of excellence.  


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