The Government has granted permission to four private diagnostic centres for conducting Covid-19 tests in Jharkhand, officials from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) said on Wednesday. The tests will be conducted free of cost at these facilities for Below Poverty Line (BPL) patients and the families that are registered under Ayushman Bharat Yojana, they added.
The four private diagnostic centres – Dr. Lal Pathlab, SRL Limited, Core Diagnostics and Path Kind Diagnostic Private Limited – have been approved by the National Health Mission (NHM) for conducting the tests as per the guidelines laid down by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, sources said. "The private labs will report to the IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme) about all the tests that are conducted there. They have to abide by all the Covid-19 testing protocols of the Government of India," said State IDSP Director Rakesh Dayal.
However, a person willing to get himself or herself tested at these facilities will have to produce a medical certificate of a doctor, officials from NHM said. Besides, the said person will also have to get a form 44 and submit an identity proof issued by the Government of India, they added.
The maximum cost of this test is Rs 4500, staff working in the private labs said. "Only screening for Covid-19 will cost Rs 1000. An additional Rs 3000 will be charged for COVID-19 confirmatory test," a staff working in Dr. Lal Pathlab in Ranchi said.
The IDSP Director, however, said that the tests would be chargeable only for the people who are economically sound. A Supreme Court directive recently said that the tests shall be conducted free of cost at all private diagnostic centres, following which it was decided that BPL families will not be charged for the tests.
By now, COVID-19 tests were conducted only at Government-run health facilities across Jharkhand. Tests were conducted at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Jamshedpur, PMCH in Dhanbad and Itki Sanatorium in Ranchi, health officials said.
The limited number of testing facilities proved to be a handicap when non-Covid-19 patients sought treatment at private hospitals, doctors' associations have said. While many private hospitals asked for COVID-19 test report as a prerequisite for treatment, none of them actually conducted the tests, sources said. Two pregnant women were also denied treatment last week as they did not have COVID-19 test reports. The Jharkhand High Court has taken cognizance of these incidents and sought an explanation from the Government.
At least 125 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Jharkhand so far, and more than 70 per cent of them are from capital Ranchi. The Government has collected samples of more than 15000 suspects in State so far, and tested around 13000 of them, officials from NHM said.