In absence of any regulatory mechanism, the private diagnostic laboratories of state always get away with instances of wrong reporting and charging exorbitant money from patients. On Thursday, one person had alleged that he faced financial, health and mental losses due to a wrong medical report of a diagnostic centre located in the state capital.
It is surprising that to set up a pathology laboratory one does not need any clearance from state health department. As per the prevalent norms, these centers must have the services of a pathologist who is recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI). It is an open fact that there are many instances where patients suffer due to the wrong reporting by the pathology centers. In most cases, the patients remain silent-something that emboldens the owners of these centres to go on with their deception spree. However, Anil Rawat who initially was shoed away by the Modern Diagnostics Pathology lab created a ruckus along with his friends on Thursday and forced the centre to apologise for the wrong report. The story was prominently taken by The Pioneer in its edition of Friday.
One of the medical experts said that most of these centres offer hefty commissions to the doctors so that they send patients to them. Recently, the state health minister Surendra Singh Negi himself caught a prescription written by a surgeon of Doon Hospital where the doctor had asked the patients to visit a particular private diagnostic centre even though the facility of these tests is available in the government hospital. The experts believe that the state government should not delay the implementation of Clinical Establishment Act (CEA) to rein in these centres.
The issue of implementation of the CEA in the state has been pending for almost three years now. The opposition and clout of private hospitals and private practitioners is believed to be behind the delay in the implementation of the act in the state. After the implementation of the act it would be compulsory for the clinical establishments like diagnostic centres to get them registered with the state Council which would have health secretary as chairman and director of health services as member- secretary. The act seeks to regulate all clinical establishments with a view to prescribing the minimum standards of facilities and services provided by them. These centres would be bound to disclose the number and qualification of the staff they are employing and display the rate lists clearly.
When contacted, the chief medical officer (CMO) of Dehradun Dr S P Agarwal admitted that the health department could not do much against the private medical centres with CEA remaining unenforced. He however added that he would initiate a probe if any particular complaint against any of these diagnostic centres is made.