By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 22 Sep: Indian Medical Association’s Uttarakhand Branch has criticised the district and the state administrations for “trying to shift blame” on private pathology labs for higher rate of positive reports as compared to the government laboratories.
At a press conference held here, today, Dr DD Chaudhury, State Secretary of IMA Uttarakhand, claimed that the administration was trying to shift blame for its failure to contain rising number of Corona cases on private pathology laboratories by accusing them of producing higher rate of positive cases as compared to the government laboratories. Dr Chaudhury asserted that the quality of testing and sampling in the private laboratories in the state was better than in the government laboratories. He pointed out that the first private laboratory in the state to start testing Corona samples, Dr Ahuja’s Pathology & Imaging Centre, was NABL accredited and its proficiency testing was done by LGC (UK). It was selected for Covid testing by ICMR. Other private laboratories testing for Covid in the state were also NABL accredited, while the Doon Medical College Laboratory of the state government was not NABL accredited and its quality of sampling or testing could be questioned.
Dr Chaudhury added that there were several reasons for higher positivity in private labs compared to Government laboratories, such as sensitivity of the kits used, proper sampling, less time taken to perform tests after taking samples. Also because in the case of one person proving positive in a household, the rest of the members were also coming forward to get themselves tested in private laboratories. Due to this, chances of coming out positive increased.
IMA doctors were of the opinion that in case of any inquiry to be done by the state government regarding Covid tests, it ought to be done by a third party and suggested that a team of ICMR be called to investigate, both, the government and the private laboratories.
The IMA also criticised the CMO of Dehradun for arbitrarily cancelling the permission for Rapid Antigen Tests by 5 reputed labs of the city, adding that they were doing yeomen service for society. The IMA accused the DM, Dehradun, for his “vindictive approach” towards private pathology laboratories and added that the district administration of Dehradun ought to be blamed for failure to control the spread of the pandemic.
The IMA has called upon Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and Secretary, Health, Amit Singh Negi to direct the district administration to extend cooperation to private laboratories and to follow the guidelines of the ICMR in this regard. The IMA warned the government that, in case the district administration carried on with its vindictive attitude, the private laboratories would not entertain any more Covid testing and the district administration would be solely responsible for the consequences. Dr Chaudhury further stated that, with the sole objective of helping the state government in coping with the rising number of Covid cases, IMA members had agreed to provide beds for Covid patients in their hospitals.
