The first advanced molecular diagnostic lab at Mahant Indiresh (MI) Hospital here with the facility to test samples of Swine flu appears to be entwined in government’s red tape as the lab is yet to get the necessary clearance even after more than four months of its establishment. In absence of any facility to test Swine flu in the state, the samples of the suspected patients are sent to National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, from there the reports take at least a week to arrive. In such a scenario, the doctors start the treatment of the disease on the basis of symptoms. “By the time the report of the sample arrives the patient is either dead or recuperated. There is an urgent need of a swine flu testing facility in the state’’, said one a doctor. If the lab of the MI hospital gets the approval then people can get their reports within six hours which would be immensely beneficial to the doctors treating the suspected cases of swine flu.
The state health minister, Surendra Singh Negi had inaugurated the advanced molecular lab at MI Hospital on October 19 last year but unfortunately the laboratory is yet to start functioning as the necessary clearance from government is yet to arrive. A slothful state medical health department sat over the permission for almost two months after which a team of officials from health directorate led by Dr Kiran Bisht inspected the facility on December 30, 2015. It is learnt that the state health department had sent its report to the NCDC on wrong address due to which letter bounced back to it. However the department officers are not officially confirming it. When contacted the State programme officer for communicable diseases, Dr Kiran Bisht said that the department had conducted the inspection of the molecular lab and sent its report to the NCDC.
Meanwhile the authorities at the Mahant Indiresh Hospital are keeping their fingers crossed in anticipation of the required approval. The senior Public Relation Officer (PRO) of the hospital, Bhupendra Raturi said that a team of health department officials visited the lab in the month of December and after that the hospital has received no communication in this regard. He said that the delay in approval is a loss for the state. The lab is equipped with BSl-3 facility and is set up in the department of biochemistry of hospital. The laboratory has the capacity to test 150 blood samples will simultaneously.