The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has expressed concern at the inordinate delay of as much as a year in submitting test reports by the Government drug testing labs, fearing that it might result into administering sub-standard/contentious/spurious drugs to the beneficiaries.
In its report submitted to Parliament on Tuesday, the panel has called for incorporating amendments in the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules in this regard, so that a definite uniform but speedy timeline for submitting the test report is laid down and scrupulously adhered to by all the Government to evade negative results.
Headed by lok Sabha MP Murli Manohar Joshi, the panel was shocked at the casual manner in which the time lines followed by Central Drug laboratories (CDl), Kolkata was 60 days for HPCl testing, 45 days for normal chemical testing and 90 days for biological products.
The Government has admitted that it was difficult to prescribe a definite time frame for the Government labs to furnish the test reports under the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules.
The panel also deplored the Union Health Ministry for keeping mum to its recommendations to bridge the gap between the abysmal doctor-patient ratios so as to ensure overall health care system in the country.
“They (the panel members) deplore that, Instead of assuring the panel of the commitment of the government to provide efficient and satisfactory health care, the Ministry responded by replying ‘No Comments’,” said the panel. PNS